Remembering Fred Smith. —Ed.

Sometimes I flabbergast myself. I think I know what I like and what I don’t like, only to find out I don’t know a damn thing about anything, least of all my likes and dislikes. Take KC and the Sunshine Band. I hated them with a passion for like 30 years and now I think they’re great. Or Elton John’s Caribou, which I liked for like 80 years only to realize just yesterday it only has two good songs on it, although to Captain Fantastic’s credit they’re two really great songs.

But occasionally I get it right the first time, as with Queen’s “We Are the Champions,” which I hated when it came out and still hate to this day. And the same goes for Television’s sophomore LP, 1978’s Adventure. People—as in every sentient human breathing air the year it came out—wrote Adventure off as a lackluster follow-up to the band’s 1977 debut, Marquee Moon. Everybody but me, that is. Because I had never heard of Marquee Moon. I didn’t even know it existed. Hell, I can’t even remember how or why I came to buy Adventure, because I had no clue as to who Television was and absolutely no inkling that they were an integral part of a musical revolution in progress at a ratty club in New York City called CBGBs.

But buy it I did, just as I bought Kill City without having ever heard the Stooges, which just goes to show you how isolating rural living was back in the days before the internet gave you access to all kinds of information, including who was who on the rock circuit. About all you got exposed to back in those days were hoof and mouth disease and square dancing, which is why I spent my teen years doing my level best to do as many drugs as I could get my greedy paws on, while trying to wrap my vehicle around a utility pole, which I finally accomplished on March 1, 1980. You’ve got to have goals, even in the boondocks, or life isn’t worth a damn.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Ahead of the release of Paul McCartney: Man on the Run, the intimate new feature documentary by Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy Award-winning director Morgan Neville, exploring Paul McCartney’s creative rebirth after The Beatles’ breakup, Capitol Records, MPL Communications and UMG have announced details of a companion album titled, Man on the Run – Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack.

The album includes all-time classics, hits, and essential tracks from across Paul McCartney and Wings’ revered catalogue. A snapshot of Paul’s creativity in the 1970s in 12 songs. “Arrow Through Me (Rough Mix),” a previously unreleased rough mix from the 1979 album sessions for Back to the Egg, and “Live And Let Die (Rockshow),” from the 1980 concert film Rockshow, can both be heard exclusively via Amazon Music ahead of release. The album will feature a third previously unreleased track in “Gotta Sing Gotta Dance,” originally featured in the 1973 The James Paul McCartney TV Special.

Both the soundtrack album and documentary will be released on February 27th, with Man on the Run – Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack arriving in a variety of formats, including a limited edition New York Taxi Yellow Vinyl LP by Jack White’s Third Man Pressing plant, a limited edition Tangerine Peel Orange Vinyl LP Amazon Exclusive, and Black Vinyl LP, through to a 1CD edition and digital release. Each vinyl edition will also come with a Man on the Run poster.

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Serendipity, hell—what we have here is a miracle. On a November day in 1969, soul shouter Wilson Pickett, members of the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, and a little-known blues guitarist named Duane Allman found themselves at a former tobacco warehouse turned recording studio at 603 East Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

What happened at FAME Studios on that day in November is the stuff of legend, and what happened after that is even more the stuff of legend, but suffice it to say that the little-known guitarist would suggest to the soul shouter that The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” might make for a great cover. “Wicked Pickett” had no reservations about recording pop material—the 1968 Hey Jude LP included a (hardly memorable) cover of Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild,” which he released as a single, and his 1970 album Right On would include covers of the Archies’ “Sugar Sugar” and the ubiquitous “Hey Joe.”

They might have seemed like an unlikely pairing—the Detroit (by way of Alabama) hard soul vet responsible for such immortal songs as “In the Midnight Hour,” “Land of 1000 Dances,” “634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.),” “Mustang Sally,” “Funky Broadway,” “Engine No. 9,” and “Don’t Knock My Love,” and the blues slide guitarist whose biggest claim to fame up until that time was playing with Hour Glass, a failed pop band that once set Edgar Allan Poe’s “Bells” to music. It’s worse than you think it is.

But something happened in FAME studios during those sessions. Pickett and Allman clicked. Allman’s stinging licks on “Toe Hold” could be the best thing about the song, and he’s all over the superfunky and horn-heavy “My Own Style of Loving.” And Pickett doesn’t sing so much as throw punches.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Van Halen began a new chapter 40 years ago with the release of 5150, the first album featuring the lineup of Sammy Hagar, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, and Michael Anthony. 5150 marked the band’s first #1 album with hits like “Why Can’t This Be Love,” “Dreams,” and “Best Of Both Worlds” and continued their streak of multi-Platinum releases.

Rhino will release 5150 (Expanded Edition) on March 27, just days after the album’s 40th anniversary. The LP/3CD/Blu-ray collection includes the 1986 album remastered directly from the original master tapes, overseen by the band’s longtime engineer Donn Landee. Additionally, an Amazon-exclusive green vinyl version will be available the same day.

The set also introduces more than 90 minutes of previously unreleased live recordings from the band’s August 27, 1986, concert at New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum in New Haven, Connecticut. These are joined by a selection of rare 7” single edits and extended 12” versions.

The Blu-ray includes a new high-definition upgrade of Live Without a Net, Van Halen’s double-Platinum 1986 concert video that was also recorded that same August night in New Haven, along with promotional videos for “Dreams” and “Why Can’t This Be Love.” Pre-order HERE.

Standalone versions of 5150 featuring the remastered album and rarities will also be available the same day as a 2CD set or a 2LP on black vinyl. Ahead of the release, the live version of “Summer Nights” from the New Haven show is available today digitally, along with the HD remastered video.

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Remembering Bob Marley, born on this day in 1945. —Ed.

Live concert music from Bob Marley and the Wailers during their ’70s heyday has often been presented at mid-size to large venues, as evidenced by their 1975 album Live! and 1978 double-album Babylon By Bus, along with the 1978 video Live at the Rainbow. Sometimes the spectacle of the music is quite pronounced and, as amazing as those albums are, the musical subtleties can get lost.

The Capitol Session ‘73 should rectify that. A live session, for the cameras from October 24th, 1973, just a week after the release of their latest album, Burnin’, produced by Denny Cordell, received a video and audio release from Mercury Studios, co-executive-produced by Cordell’s son Barney.

Filmed and recorded at the Capitol Records Tower in Los Angeles using Cordell’s portable rig of four cameras and mixing the sound live on the fly, even though Marley was under contract at the time with Island Records, this one-off show was thought to be lost, but after a twenty-year, international search, the film and audio were found.

The concert came on the heels of the group’s second Island Records release, Burnin’. That album featured the original version of “I Shot the Sheriff,” later made into a hit by Eric Clapton in 1974 from his 461 Ocean Boulevard album. Burnin’ also included a version of “Get Up, Stand Up” and the classic “Burning and Looting.” The group was then on only its second U.S. tour, after having been in the States the previous spring. For both tours, the group also played in England.

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I recently spoke with Sergio Rotman, composer and saxophonist best known for his work with Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, the influential Argentine ska/rock band. With the Cadillacs he won the Grammy Award for Best Latin Rock/Alternative Performance for Fabulosos Calavera in 1998—the first time an Argentine band received a Grammy.

Outside the Cadillacs, Sergio led the long-running punk-rock group Cienfuegos. He’s also collaborated extensively with Mimi Maura—including co-founding her band in 1999. Along the way he’s recorded and produced with artists such as Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, Debbie Harry, Mick Jones (The Clash), Big Youth, Los Auténticos Decadentes, Todos Tus Muertos, and Los Cafres. He has also released several solo albums and singles in recent years as Rotman, many of which have been produced by Pablo Martin.

We speak about all his work in these amazing projects plus his life in Buenos Aires. You can catch Sergio at his club in BA, Strummer Bar, where he hosts his Basura Post-Punk nights and on the road with the Cadillacs. Follow him @sergiorotman on insta to discover all his happenings.

Radar features discussions with artists and industry leaders who are creators and devotees of music and is produced by Dylan Hundley and The Vinyl District. Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer, and the co-creator and lead singer of Lulu Lewis and all things at Darling Black. She co-curates and hosts Salon Lulu which is a New York based multidisciplinary performance series. She is also a cast member of the iconic New York film Metropolitan.

Charanjit Singh is a fascinating character. So fascinating, I don’t even know where to start. The Indian musician and composer led a wedding band, produced instrumental elevator music, played guitar, bass, keyboards, and synthesizers on the soundtracks of literally hundreds of Bollywood movies, and once held off a pack of hungry wolves with nothing but a VCR copy of O.P. Goyle’s 1973 Hindi-language film Bandhe Hath.

Okay, so I made up that last part. But Singh is credited with introducing synthesizers into Bollywood film scores, making him a pioneer. But what makes him even more of an innovator is his 1982 debut LP Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat, which didn’t sell (despite its supercool cover) but was rediscovered years later, and (thanks in particular to his pioneering use of the Roland TB-303) led to his being called “the Father of Acid House.”

It’s an odd fusion, raga and disco, and if 1982 seems like rather a late date to be putting out ANY disco LP, it wasn’t in India, where Pakistani pop singer Nazia Hassan and Indian producer Biddu in particular set the spark to a thriving electronic disco scene—Saturday Night Fever set to a Bollywood beat. But it was Singh who explored the possibilities of combining raga and disco music, with a dollop of Bollywood filmi music thrown in.

Singh had a kind of mystico-electronica experience when he discovered synthesizers, and specifically the Roland Corporation’s Jupiter-8 (“an 8-voice polyphonic analog synthesizer,” whatever that means), the TR-808 drum machine, and the TB-303 bass synthesizer. It was like he discovered LSD, but you had to plug it in.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Jane Weaver’s illustrious career has produced an expansive library of music that has seen her journey through solo folkloric and pop-leaning beginnings through to the psychedelic synth-pop explorations of today. Celebrating her pioneering vision, Fire Records will be deep diving into her early catalogue with a new reissue series set for release in 2026.

On its 15th Anniversary, we revisit The Fallen By Watch Bird with a special expanded edition double vinyl release that will include “The Watchbird Alluminate”—featuring Demdike Stare, The Focus Group, Anworth Kirk, and Samandtheplants. The album will be performed for the first time in its entirety by Jane and the sonic sisterhood group of Septieme Soeur, including harpist Serafina Steer (Bas Jan), guitarist and singer Emma Tricca, Welsh folk artist Lisa Jen (9Bach), and guitarist Joel Nicholson (Jane Weaver Band), with accompanying storybook visuals and film.

A formative masterpiece from her ever-growing discography, The Fallen By Watch Bird is a tapestry of psychedelic femme-folk-rock drawing influences from Eastern European children’s cinema, Germanic kunstmärchen, ’70s television music, and ’80s electronic scores. Steeped in synths and mysticism, the fully realised conceptual record weaves imagery of absent sailors, telekinesis, bird messengers, and white witchcraft alongside pagan themes of death and rebirth.

Presented across seven chapters it features performances from Septieme Soeur Wendy Flower of Wendy & Bonnie folk pop duo who released 1969’s Genesis, Lisa Jen Welsh, vocalist on Gruff Rhys’ Candylion, lost American folk-pop singer Susan Christie, and Bosnian folk music singer and violinist Behar.

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Remembering Alex Harvey, born on this day in 1935. —Ed.

What the fuck is this? Glam hangers-on The Sensational Alex Harvey Band were a uniquely Scottish phenomenon, trainspotting and pronouncing the word “garage” the way Elton John does in his song “Levon.” Which is just another way of saying that hardly anybody in the U.S. of A. outside of Cleveland ever laid ears on ‘em, much less considered ‘em sensational.

And small wonder, because the Sensational Alex Harvey Band were simply too esoteric gonzo in the grand tradition of unapologetic English eccentrics for mass consumption. Pub rock heroes with progressive rock tendencies who weren’t afraid to shamelessly camp it up for the Glitter kids, SAHB liked to keep the punters guessing, as 1973’s Next demonstrates.

On the band’s sophomore LP you get some Mott rock, a faux-snakeskin swamp blues, an esoteric hoodoo jive number called “Vambo Marble Eye,” some straight-up Glam Rock, and a couple of numbers so completely over the top flamboyant they make David Bowie and Gary Glitter look like wallflowers. Fact is I’ve never heard anything like ‘em outside the canons of Jobriath, Meatloaf, and Morrissey.

All of which to say is that Alex Harvey and Company were some twisted people, as their madcap live shows proved. Superhero costumes, props, you name it–these anything goes eclectitions (a word I just made up!) put every bit as much outré energy into their stage act as Alice Cooper or Jethro Tull, and their fanatical UK cult following adored them for it.

The LP opens on a cheesy blues note with piano stomper “Swampsnake”–on which Harvey plays some very ornery harmonica and does some serious over-emoting–before taking a very “whatever were they thinking?” wrong turn with “Gang Bang,” which sounds like your standard Mott the Hoople pub rocker but flunks every known morality test with its chorus “Ain’t nothing like a gang bang/To blow away the blues.”

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PHOTOS: MATTHEW BELTER | For over four decades, KMFDM has served as the unflinching, sawtooth-edged conscience of industrial rock. Led by the inimitable Sascha “Käpt’n K” Konietzko, the band has consistently delivered a barrage of politically charged, sonically abrasive anthems that have defined and redefined the genre.

Their legacy is one of relentless innovation and fierce independence, a “dope-show” of industrial metal, pounding electronics, and sardonic commentary that has influenced countless artists. Now, with their 24th studio album, ENEMY, the band proves they are as vital and ferocious as ever.

Set for release on February 6, 2026, ENEMY arrives as a defiant statement in a world grappling with rising instability and social tension. This album is a testament to the enduring power of the current lineup. Konietzko’s visionary production and snarling vocals remain the anchor, while Lucia Cifarelli delivers her signature blend of ethereal melodies and commanding aggression.

Longtime drummer Andy Selway provides a relentlessly powerful rhythmic foundation, and the album marks the studio debut of guitarist Todor Nieddu, whose sharp, incisive riffs add a fresh layer of intensity to the band’s sound. In addition, Annabella Konietzko contributes her first songwriting credit with KMFDM, and her contribution and vocals are straight fire.

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