VIA PRESS RELEASE | The true test of originality for any musician comes when you hear an instrument being played and you instantly know who’s playing it. For electric guitarists, certainly Hendrix qualifies; Page and Clapton, too. Maybe Eddie Van Halen before the legion of imitators. You probably have your own list, but to us, standing toe-to-toe (or pick-to-pick) with those legends is Television guitarist and solo artist Tom Verlaine.

2006’s Around picks up the lofty mantle of the Warm and Cool album that was released 14 years prior with another set of utterly mesmerizing instrumentals, ranging from solo, almost raga-esque explorations (“Flame”) to post-rock vamps (“Balcony”) to abstract sketches (“A Burned Letter”) to the kind of indescribable, utterly gorgeous beauty that only this man and his guitar could pull off (“Eighty-Eights”).

That’s old Television band-mate Billy Ficca on drums; bassist and original engineer Patrick Derivaz’s new mastering for vinyl will make this record sing and breathe along with you (and vice versa). Tom’s long-time partner, artist Jutta Koether, again supplies notes in the enclosed insert. Sunglasses brown pressing for this album’s vinyl debut.

Remembering Glen Campbell, born on this day in 1936. —Ed.

The English Pre-Raphaelite poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti once wrote, “Each hour flings a bomb at my burning soul.” Before adding, “Neither from owl nor from bat can peace be gained until I clasp my wombat.” I admit to being completely flummoxed by what this Rossetti chap means by “his wombat.” Did he have, in his personal menagerie, an actual wombat? One that he clasped to his troubled bosom when bombs were being catapulted at his burning soul? Your guess as is good as mine.

But I digress. The point I’m trying to make, albeit in a hopelessly circuitous way, is that my soul too has been burning of late, and I don’t see a wombat in sight. I have a cat, but when I attempt to clasp him to my bosom he is immediately transformed into a furious blur of tooth and claw. So I ask myself; how best can I regain my peace? And the answer, stated as succinctly as possible, is Glen Campbell.

The odd thing is that despite the fact that I grew up in a rural backwater, in a town so small that the “Welcome to Littlestown” sign and the “You Are Now Leaving Littlestown” sign were the same sign and many of my fellow townspeople made those toothless rustics in Deliverance look like cosmopolitan sophisticates, the only country music I ever heard came to me via Hee Haw, which I would occasionally watch with the old man. That said, I totally loved “Rhinestone Cowboy.” It fell into the rarified genre of glam country, and I could never hear it often enough. That said, I’d never heard any of his other songs and was never tempted to buy a G.C. LP.

When I finally got around to listening to him as an adult, and happened upon such immortal songs as “Wichita Lineman,” “Galveston,” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” I’ll admit I was disappointed. The string-heavy arrangements turned these great numbers to treacle. Distracted from the songs’ greatness, they did. Which I why I was thrilled to discover Campbell’s final studio LP (he’s still with us, but in the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease), 2013’s See You There.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The true test of originality for any musician comes when you hear an instrument being played and you instantly know who’s playing it. For electric guitarists, certainly Hendrix qualifies; Page and Clapton, too. Maybe Eddie Van Halen before the legion of imitators. You probably have your own list, but to us, standing toe-to-toe (or pick-to-pick) with those legends is Television guitarist and solo artist Tom Verlaine.

His self-taught, jazz-influenced style, largely devoid of effects, and vibrato tone makes any Verlaine solo unmistakably a Verlaine solo. That he was quite an accomplished, idiosyncratic songwriter is just a bonus. Real Gone Music is very proud to announce that we have arranged with the Verlaine estate to release Tom’s last three solo albums on LP, starting with his 1992 instrumental masterpiece Warm and Cool, which has never been released on vinyl in the U.S.

Swirling within this album’s 14 compositions are hints of rock, jazz, country, surf, and even a little bit of the guitar noir found on Angelo Badalamenti’s soundtracks for David Lynch, all given brilliant new life in a fresh mastering for vinyl by long-time Verlaine collaborator Patrick Derivaz, who also played bass on the album. Simultaneously avant-garde and familiar-sounding, Warm and Cool is as contemporary and forward-thinking as any music coming out today, but—as the new liner notes by Verlaine’s life partner Jutta Koether point out—the album fits into a larger modern art and philosophical context.

Indeed, reading Koether’s poetic love letter to her dear departed and listening to this gorgeous, daring music makes for a profound experience we are eager to share. Pink vinyl pressing to go with the artful choice of type hue on the front cover.

There’s a unique quality that actors and actresses bring to songwriting and musicianship. Oftentimes, they create works that lean heavily on the idea that the singer, or narrator, is a character. Of course, all musicians and songwriters do this to some extent, but there’s another level of commitment when it’s done by a musician who also happens to be an actor.

Rebecca Pidgeon is well-known in both worlds, as an actress and as a musician and songwriter. This year she’s released her 11th full-length album titled, Songs of LA which explores the City of Angles’ by simultaneously studying its daytime sunshine alongside the town’s hauntingly dark nights. Pidgeon’s long-time writing partner, David Batteau, worked on many of these songs with Rebecca before the pandemic sidelined the project. Here, Rebecca fuses her acting chops with her songwriting and performing prowess.

Join Rebecca and me on this episode as she takes me on a journey through some of Tinseltown’s creepiest back-alleys as we discuss her new album, her multifaceted career, and how everything that glitters in La La Land isn’t always gold.

Evan Toth is a songwriter, professional musician, educator, radio host, avid record collector, and hi-fi aficionado. Toth hosts and produces The Evan Toth Show and TVD Radar on WFDU, 89.1 FM. Follow him at the usual social media places and visit his website.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | The Hold Steady are pleased to announce Stay Positive, a charming, illustrated children’s book based on the beloved song of the same name, arriving October 1 via Akashic Books. Pre-orders are available now wherever books are sold.

Signed copies of Stay Positive—which features The Hold Steady song illustrated by award-winning cartoonist and comic book author David “El Dee” Espinosa—will also be available. In addition, a Limited-Edition Package is on offer including bookplates signed by the band, an exclusive Stay Positive sticker sheet, and official Stay Positive-themed, THS reusable water bottle only available as part of this bundle.A call to arms to stand strong and persevere during trying times, Stay Positive is based upon the title track of The Hold Steady’s acclaimed 2008 fourth album, a longtime fan favorite and staple of the band’s jubilant live shows. The new 32-page book for readers of all ages follows the path of a humble armadillo who discovers along the way how music can pull together a disparate cast of characters. A lesson in tenacity and maintaining a positive attitude when encountering adverse situations, Stay Positive ends up in a unified celebration that mirrors the triumphant joy of a Hold Steady performance.

“‘Stay Positive’ has a line that says, ‘The kids at the shows will have kids of their own,’ and it’s true: each year more Hold Steady fans become parents or grandparents,” says The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn. “So, I’m thrilled that we’re offering the children’s book version of Stay Positive, which brings THS joy to the whole family.”

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Those hankering for an international strain of stripped-down ’60s rock blare should investigate Mejor de Los Nuggetz: ‘60s Garage and Psych. It serves up mucho Spanish language R&R action and arrives on opaque red vinyl just in time for Record Store Day courtesy of Liberation Hall. The bands (and one gal singer) hailed from various locales in Mexico, Spain, and South America. The songs are all covers of rock, R&B, and pop hits from the USA and UK. A few radio station IDs and commercials for cars and cola enhance the weave of a very appealing listen.

Driving home the impact of the Rolling Stones on the ’60 garage rock phenomenon, the Mexican band Los Apson opens Mejor de Los Nuggetz with an echoey, stomping “Satisfacción.” Additionally, the Barcelona-based Los Salvajes are featured with two Stones covers, “La Neurastenia,” an energetic version of “19th Nervous Breakdown” with killer bursts of fuzz, and “Todo Negro,” a reading of “Paint It, Black” that deftly retains the urgency of the original. “Voy Por Ti,” the last song on the album and the second by Los Apson, dishes out Willie Dixon’s “The Seventh Son” in the spirit of the early Stones.

Much of the source material on Mejor de Los Nuggetz derives from the UK. There’s “Nuestra Generación” by Barcelona’s Lone Star, a lean, manic take of The Who’s “My Generation,” while later in the album, Los Belmonts of Mexico City brings “Arriba Abajo Y a Los Lados,” an impressive version of The Yardbirds’ “Over Under Sideways Down.” Later still, Mexico’s Los Matemáticos are heard with “Me Atrapaste,” a ripping run-through of The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me.”

Spain’s Los Mustang’s version of The Beatles’ “Please Please Me” is a crisp chime-pop delight. A few years later and the band had gravitated to the other side of the Atlantic for inspiration with “La Carta,” a take of The Box Tops’ “The Letter” that is faithful to the original as it establishes a growing tendency toward pop.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Can have announced Can Live in Aston 1977, the latest in an ongoing series of Can album releases focusing on the band’s live performances. It is set for release on vinyl, CD, and digitally on May 31, 2024 via Mute and Future Days.

Live in Aston 1977 is a whole new lens through which we can view a unique band with seemingly inexhaustible energy for live performance. It comes at a difficult period for Can; their recently released eighth studio album, Saw Delight, had been badly received and although posterity has been kinder, the reviews on release were savage. It might be expected that the live performances from this time would reflect some of the criticisms of the album, that they were slowing down, perhaps even feeling a little jaded, but it cements the notion that Can live, at any period, was mercurial.

Within the Can Live series, this is the first to feature bassist Rosko Gee (Traffic) who had recently joined Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit, Michael Karoli, and Holger Czukay (who, relieved of bass duties, is credited with “waveform radio and spec. sounds” on the album). Rosko would perform with them until the band’s split in 1979.

Recordings from the series have been uncovered and pieced together from recordings within the Spoon Records vaults and those sent in by helpful fans, and brought into the 21st century by founding member Irmin Schmidt and producer / engineer René Tinner who have compiled and edited all the albums in this series.

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It would be very presumptuous for any musical artist to title an album “everybody digs,” followed by their name. In the case of Bill Evans, it’s nearly a fact, especially if you are a fan of the best jazz pianists of all time.

This 1959 album was his second as a leader and perhaps his best, prior to the four albums he would release as a member of the Bill Evans Trio between 1959 and 1961 with Paul Motian and Scott LaFaro. All five of the albums mentioned above were released on Riverside. His debut as leader was also on Riverside, with his third album on Milestone, and then a quartet release on United Artists with Bob Brookmeyer, Percy Heath, and Connie Kay. Other than another album on United Artists, one on Atlantic and one on Verve, he would have three more Riverside releases through 1963.

Between his solo debut in 1956 and this album, in 1958 alone he worked as a sideman on albums for George Russell, Don Elliot, Joe Puma, Jimmy Knepper, Sahib Shihab, Idrees Sulieman, Eddie Costa, Hellen Merrill, Hal McKusick, Michel Legrand, Cannonball Adderley, Art Farmer, Chet Baker, and Charles Mingus, along with three for Tony Scott. He also recorded with Miles Davis, was in his band, and would appear on the legendary Kind Of Blue the following year.

There are three solo piano pieces here and Evans is joined on the other tracks by Sam Jones on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. Evans wrote a short musical epilogue that clocks in at under a minute and that closes each side, as well as the classic and sprawling “Peace Piece,” with the rest of the songs here covers. The other absolute classic here is also a long, sprawling track: a cover of Cole Poter’s “Night and Day” that Evans moves through with ingenious modulations. The drumming by Jones in spots adds a jaunty kick that elevates this beautiful song to something heart-stopping.

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