Jethro Tull holds a unique place in rock history. Led by flute-playing, musical minstrel, and Dickensian vagabond Ian Anderson, the quintessential British group has been lumped into various trends, most notably prog, but it is so much more. Their melding of folk, jazz, rock, classical, and pop began with their bluesy debut, This Was, in 1968, and successfully evolved through nearly the end of the 1970s before their sound became heavier and more straightforward.

Arguably, their first 10 studio albums are exceptional, and much of their music still stands up today. Along with Anderson, the key members of Tull who contributed to this rich period are Glenn Cornick, Clive Bunker, Martin Barre, Jeffrey Hammond, John Evan, Barriemore Barlow, John Glascock, and Dee Palmer, in an ever-shifting lineup that found guitarist Barre as Anderson’s most important and consistent collaborator.

The 1972 double-album release Living in the Past came at perhaps the group’s peak and is an odd, yet excellent album in the Tull discography. Their sixth overall album was also their first on Chrysalis in the States. It has recently been reissued in both vinyl and a deluxe CD/Blu-ray box set, billed as Still Living in the Past, further enhancing the album’s stature.

What made the initial double-album release so successful was that rather than being the standard compilation album or just a simple collection of bits and bobs (or odds and sods), it offered a rich variety of music, much of it B-sides, different single mixes, live material, EP tracks, and previously unreleased music from various album configurations or territories. It was a beautiful presentation in an era when the rock album package was truly a thing of beauty.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | CLOCK DVA announces the remastered reissue of Thirst, due to be released on double thirst-red vinyl, CD, and digitally on June 5, 2026. The album, which follows the remastered release of their debut, White Souls in Black Suits, features single mixes of “4 Hours” and “Sensorium” alongside new remixes by the current iteration of Clock DVA. “4 Hours” was the sole single at the time of the original release. One of The Face and Rockerilla’s Singles of the Year 1981, it went on to be one of NME’s Best Indie Singles Ever and Blow Up’s 100 Songs to Remember.

Thirst—originally released in 1981—is a stone-cold post-punk classic. While still retaining the sharp experimental edge of their debut, White Souls in Black Suits, Thirst stretches out and offers up some cleaner and more hooky moments as it moves away from pure improvisation. “Between White Souls and Thirst, the guitarist changed from David Hammond to Paul Widger,” explains Newton. “David introduced the perfect guitar sound for DVA, whereas Paul brought in a more rhythmic style, more towards early Ry Cooder. The material we were developing was a more defined series of pieces, more structured and exact than the improvised works on White Souls.”

45 years on from its original release (on Fetish), it’s a record from the era that sounds like no other. There’s jazz-inflected post-punk, helped by Charlie Collins’ wonderfully inventive sax playing, but also nods to more Beefheart-esque wonky grooves—aided by Newton’s raspy growls—while tracks like “4 Hours” also hit home the group’s real knack for incorporating catchy songcraft with the infectious song containing an almost new wave shimmer.

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Founded by Bruce Licher, Independent Project Records has been one of the more consistent labels in both sound and design over the last 50 years. For evidence, please look no further than the new 2CD compilation The Well, which offers 41 tracks ranging from well-known acts to deep obscurities. It’s available now.

Although difficult to pin down stylistically, Independent Project Records benefited from a focused sensibility. The Well bears this out. Opening the set is Afterimage, a band formed in early ’80s Los Angeles who garnered the description of their home burg’s Joy Division. Their collected early works validate that connection, but the eponymous track here is, frankly, more (if mildly) reminiscent of early Public Image Ltd.

Afterimage’s Barry Craig also recorded and was indeed quite prolific under the moniker A Produce, a project featured here with two instrumentals, “Tunnels” and “Jimbe,” that cavort in the atmospheric soundscape zone and wander toward trance-adjacent dance rhythms. Also included is “I Woke Up Screaming,” a very intriguing Craig solo track that exudes psych-folk vibes with a loner undercurrent.

As one of IPR’s bigger acts, San Francisco’s The Ophelias are represented here with the echoey flute-laden psych bombast of “Sleepy Hamlet.” Ophelias founder Leslie Medford also makes the cut with the thump-pulse post-Detroit vaguely-Velvets druggy-punk haze of “Leslie’s Dream.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Following the triumph of Brian Wilson’s legendary Roxy Theatre shows in 2000, Wilson and his acclaimed touring ensemble took that magic across the globe. Now, fans will get the rare opportunity to experience that era in full with On Tour 1999–2007, an expansive live collection arriving exclusively on Record Store Day, April 18, 2026, via Oglio Entertainment.

Spanning performances recorded between 1999 and 2007, On Tour documents one of the most creatively vibrant periods of Wilson’s career. Drawn from iconic venues including Carnegie Hall (New York), Royal Festival Hall (London), UCLA Royce Hall (Los Angeles), CenterStaging (Burbank, CA), the Wiltern Theater (Los Angeles), and Chicago, the album captures Wilson reimagining beloved classics while spotlighting his solo material and personal favorites with renewed warmth, and emotional depth.

On Tour 1999–2007 also serves as a natural companion piece to last year’s acclaimed Brian Wilson: Live at the Roxy Theatre (25th Anniversary Edition), which documented Wilson’s triumphant April 2000 return to the stage at West Hollywood’s legendary Roxy Theatre. While Live at the Roxy captured the spark that ignited Wilson’s late-career touring renaissance, On Tour 1999–2007 follows that momentum outward—tracing how those sold-out Roxy performances evolved into a globe-spanning live era that carried the same spirit, energy, and creative vitality to concert halls around the world.

Together, the two releases form a powerful live chronicle of Brian Wilson’s modern touring legacy—from the intimate breakthrough moments at the Roxy to the fully realized international performances that defined the years that followed.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | By the dawn of the 1990s The Verlaines had parted company with long-time New Zealand indie label Flying Nun.

Looking to increase their profile in the Northern Hemisphere (where their previous albums had made an impact through the likes of US college radio), they signed with Los Angeles based Slash Records. Ready To Fly, recorded in Sydney, Australia, was the first of two releases with the label, appearing in 1991. Trouser Press praised the album’s twelve songs, saying “…throw in Downes’ strongest bunch of guitar-pop tunes and you’ve got the Verlaines’ best LP.”

Indeed, some of the band’s most enduring material can be found on I, in particular “War In My Head,” “Gloom Junky,” and the titular track with its grand orchestration.

Released for Record Store Day 2026 for the very first time on Blue Jay Opaque colored vinyl on with remastering by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios. This is a 2026 Record Store Day Release.

Celebrating Nigel Olsson on his 77th birthday. —Ed.

Fanatical Elton John fans—and I’m one of them—frequently get into knife fights over which is the better album, 1974’s Elton John’s Greatest Hits or 1977’s Elton John’s Greatest Hits Volume II. I prefer the former—and have the scars to prove it—for three reasons: 1) It was the album that began my love affair with the guy; 2) it more clearly delineates the metamorphosis of Elton from singer-songwriter nebbish to Glitter extrovert Captain Fantastic; and 3) it has “Rocket Man,” Glam’s Jester King’s signature song on it.

But you would have to be some kind of hideous deep sea creature to deny the brilliance of the majority of the songs on Elton John’s Greatest Hits Volume II. The trouble—for me anyway—is that it includes three songs I don’t much care for as well as the straggler “Levon” from 1971’s Madman Across the Water, which rightfully should have been included along with the earlier material on Elton John’s Greatest Hits Volume 1.

But it’s an essential compilation nonetheless, because it includes three singles you won’t find on any of Elton’s studio LPs and one (a cover of The Who’s “Pinball Wizard”) you’ll find only on the 1975 soundtrack of Tommy. I don’t much care for the Bicentennial Year keepsake “Philadelphia Freedom” (those sweeping disco strings irk me) or the perky Motown-inspired duet with Kiki Dee “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” not so much because they’re bad songs (they’re not) but because say what you will about lyricist Bernie Taupin he’s always been an oddball (give a listen to “Solar Prestige a Gammon”) with an eye for detail (check out “Bennie and the Jets”).

Neither are on display on the pedestrian “Philadelphia Freedom” or “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.” But if you want them and don’t own the singles this is where you’ll find them. I’m not much of a fan of the lugubrious “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word” from his 1976 depression opus Blue Moves either, because it lacks the soaring majesty of heartbreak songs like “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” which you’ll find on Elton John’s Greatest Hits Volume 1.

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Washington, DC denizen Elizabeth Nelson has returned, fronting and writing the songs for another strong full-length record under the moniker The Paranoid Style. As an astute observer of human behavior in a damaged world and a tireless student of pop and rock from across the decades, Known Associates balances timelessness and contemporary verve. The eleven-song set arrives February 13 on vinyl, compact disc, and digital through Bar/None Records.

Elizabeth Nelson has numerous strengths as a musician and lack of perceptible weaknesses. Writing smart songs isn’t an unusual gift but being able to cogently express ideas on how music works in text form from the perspective of a singer and player is rare enough, and then to turn that knowledge back into the creation of albums that are infused with a historical richness as they roll easily from track to track is an artistic skill even less frequently absorbed.

For Known Associates, Nelson has reconvened her recording lineup of Peter Holsapple, William Matheny, Michael Venutolo-Mantovani, Jon Langmead, and Timothy Bracy while welcoming guests Matt Douglas of the Mountain Goats, Lisa Walker of Wussy, and Eugene Edwards, a guitarist for Dwight Yoakam whose playing comes out of the Danny Gatton tradition.

Known Associates’ opener “Tearing the Ticket” name-checks Gatton and Roy Buchanan, with the track offering a gorgeously achy edge halfway between anthemic and melancholy. It’s new wave-tinged power pop, complete with guitar jangle and bursts of saxophone and some calliope-like flute down deep in the mix, courtesy of Douglas.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Varèse Sarabande announces new expanded CD and digital editions, plus the first-ever vinyl release, of the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s Sin City. The soundtrack album features music by Rodriguez, John Debney, and Graeme Revell, who respectively scored the three different chapters to this big-screen adaptation of Miller’s comic.

Available for pre-order now, the vinyl release featuring the original soundtrack for the film will arrive on March 27th as a widely available “Blood Red” translucent pressing, joined by exclusive limited-edition color variants from Barnes & Noble, Mondo, and Enjoy the Ride. A Deluxe Edition expanded version of the film score featuring the complete original score cues by Rodriguez, Revell, and Debney paired with brand-new liner notes will arrive on CD as part of Varèse Sarabande’s beloved CD Club series and make its streaming premiere on April 24th.

An iconic meeting of acclaimed visual stylist Frank Miller (The Dark Knight Returns, Ronin, 300) and hit cinematic one-man band Robert Rodriguez (Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Machete, Alita: Battle Angel). 2005’s Sin City took adaptations of the graphic medium to the next level with a beyond faithful, blazingly black-and-white film noir portrait of doomed detectives, femme fatales, and sordid villains that gave true, all-star life to Miller’s iconically hard-boiled characters.

“Sin City’s visuals are as important as the story. That’s what you fall in love with. This would be the first time you’d see Frank Miller’s art move, and that’s what I pitched to him,” Rodriguez says of their breakthrough co-directing effort, joined by special guest director Quentin Tarantino.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | One of the best-loved UK bands of the last four decades, The Charlatans’ career spans 14 albums, three Number One UK albums and era-defining anthems like “The Only One I Know,” “North Country Boy,” and “One to Another.”

Out on March 27th and available to pre-order now, this 2XLP/2XCD expanded edition of Some Friendly celebrates their landmark 1990 debut album. The 20 songs on this release include the original album plus a selection of bonus tracks curated especially for this release by Tim Burgess. The album has been newly remastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road and will be pressed on double white vinyl with a printed inner gatefold sleeve. It is also available on 2XCD. Additionally, “The Only One I Know” will also be available in Dolby Atmos via Apple, Amazon, and Genie.

Additionally, Record Store Day 2026 on April 18th will bring us “Then”—a special edition 12” picture disc of the “Then” single featuring 4 tracks. 1. Then 2. Taurus Moaner 3. Taurus Moaner (Instrumental) 4. Then (Alternate Take).

The Charlatans formed in 1988 and released their debut single “Indian Rope” in early 1990. They began recording Some Friendly shortly after with producer Chris Nagle. The blistering lead single, “The Only One I Know” was their first top-10 hit, and is still their most popular song. The song has recently been getting even more attention for it’s use in the popular Netflix series Run Away. Two additional singles followed with “Then” and “Sproston Green.”

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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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