VIA PRESS RELEASE | Hailed upon its December 2020 release as “unique melodic gold” (Uncut), “ardent, fascinating, musically astute, structurally complex” (MOJO), “an excellent new solo album … full of beautiful melodies and heartfelt lyrics” (The Sunday Times), “he remains one of the greatest musical talents of our times, and anything he records with freedom, fun and inspiration is sure to be a joy” (The Telegraph) and, “some of the best music McCartney has made in years” (Loud And Quiet).

Paul McCartney’s McCartney III now, fittingly, celebrates its third anniversary with the limited run McCartney III–3×3 Edition, to be released December 15th on Capitol Records. McCartney III–3×3 Edition will be released in three randomly distributed configurations, each featuring one of three unique combinations of multi-color vinyl and prints of Paul’s handwritten draft lyrics or of his hand-drawn album artwork sketch: tri-color vinyl + “Pretty Boys” lyric draft, three-striped vinyl + album artwork sketch, swirl vinyl + “The Kiss of Venus” lyric draft. Additionally, all copies of McCartney III–3×3 Edition will feature new cover art, and will include a poster of Ed Ruscha’s hand-sketched draft for the original McCartney III album artwork.

Originally released December 18, 2020, McCartney III is the third in a trilogy of home-made self-titled albums that began with Paul’s milestone 1970 solo debut McCartney, and continued in 1980 with the bold, experimental McCartney II. All three albums were written, performed, and produced by Paul in varying states of isolation, all showcasing his unique creativity and inspired spontaneity.

Recorded in “Rockdown” in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, McCartney III saw Paul turn unexpected time on his hands into an opportunity to get into the studio on his own. An intimate and revelatory record, McCartney III features Paul’s melodic gift at its forefront throughout. Upon release, McCartney III charted at #1 on both the UK’s Official Album Charts and Billboard’s Top Album Sales Chart.

With Pentecostal fervor—that’s the way prodigies Larry and Lorrie Collins of The Collins Kids played their rockabilly. Precocious doesn’t begin to describe Larry, the little maniac who was storming about stage like a pint-sized dervish while tearing off lightning-fast runs on his Mosrite double-necked guitar—when he was 10. And Lorrie—who was two years older than Larry—was steaming up rooms with sultry vocals that won her comparisons to the wicked Wanda Jackson. They were a mite older (two years or so) when they hit their peak in the late fifties, but they were still definitely kids—which didn’t stop them from cutting some of the hottest rockabilly tracks you’ll ever hear.

After Larry and Lorrie wowed them at amateur shows—first separately, and then as a team—in Tulsa, Oklahoma, their mom convinced their dad to sell the dairy farm, load up the family’s ‘47 Hudson and move west to Los Angeles, which was hardly Rockabilly, USA but where they managed to score a recording contract with Columbia Records. They also became regulars on the L.A.-based TV program Town Hall Party, and if you check out the available YouTube videos you’ll understand why—decked out in full C&W regalia The Collins Kids cook up an electrical storm.

Larry was a born showman, dancing around and mugging it up for the crowd like a cross between Chuck Berry and Angus Young while playing flashy runs on what was only the second double-neck guitar ever made. Meanwhile, Lorrie belted ‘em out, somehow managing to look virginal while upping the temperature in the room considerably. (No wonder she was Rickie Nelson’s first girlfriend.) They were just kids, but theirs was no kiddie novelty act—they served ‘em up red hot, just like Gene V. and Jerry Lee.

Larry, a childhood churchgoer like his sister, would later say, “We just had a natural Pentecostal beat that followed us in our music. It was rockabilly when we started doing it together. We had no one to learn from. We were just doing what we felt. It the song didn’t have a beat and something we could move around to, we didn’t do it.” In short, they found their inspiration to play the Devil’s music in God’s house, and both God and the Devil got a kick out of their handiwork.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The 30th Anniversary Edition of Plastikman’s groundbreaking debut album, Sheet One, is set for release on December 15th, 2023 in the US and Canada. It will be released on BioVinyl, remastered from the original masters and available via Mute sublabel NovaMute.

Plastikman is just one of Richie Hawtin’s alter egos and Sheet One was the first in a series of releases that started a phenomenon with seismic influence. Its stark production was quite unlike anything else in the electronic scene at that time, and an instantly recognizable and somewhat controversial acid-blotter CD cover introduced the world to his unique sound. The album was the beginning of a long creative relationship between Richie Hawtin and Mute and soon took its place as a crucial, classic electronic album. The release has also been remastered for digital re-release, courtesy of Manmade Mastering from Berlin.

With Plastikman, Richie Hawtin defined a time and place, expanding the dimensions of Detroit techno and redefining the possibilities of electronic dance music, evolving over six albums into one of contemporary electronic music’s most distinctive voices: minimalist, psychedelic, groove-laden, and transcendent.

Born in Oxfordshire, Hawtin’s family moved to Canada when he was nine and, growing up he was heavily influenced by both his father’s diverse record collection and his own acute curiosity for everything electronic, watching from an early age as his father dismantled various electronic devices, rebuilding and modifying them in front of his son’s eyes.

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The arts have always served as an effective way to tackle difficult feelings. Mental health has become a very hot topic in the last few years for two reasons: the first is that mental health challenges have continued to become destigmatized, and the second is the continued realization that—believe it, or not—someone that you know, most likely several of the people you know, grapple with a mental health challenge of their own.

The arts serve as a conduit through expressing feelings that aren’t so easy to communicate with mere words. Non-profit record label Future Youth Records knows this well and offers young performers a way for them to express their feelings about complicated social issues in musical terms. Ontario’s Tausha Hanna connected with the label and together they have completed two significant projects. On the the first, Tausha was one of the featured performers on Julian Lennon’s, “Saltwater” which supported Lennon’s White Feather Foundation.

Recently, Tausha has completed her second project with the label. This time, shifting the focus away from environmental concerns and toward mental health initiatives. Tausha was connected with Academy Award winner Billy Bob Thornton and his stalwart musical partner from The Boxmasters, J.D. Andrew. They were both impressed by a song of Tausha’s titled, “As I Ever Was” and invited her to Billy Bob’s studio to produce and record the song together.

What you’ll hear on this episode is Billy Bob Thornton, J.D. Andrew, Tausha and I have a frank discussion regarding the state of mental health support in our current society and examples of ways that the arts serve as a valuable tool in combating the challenges that so many people face. It’s also a refreshing portrait of new and experienced performers joining forces for a common goal. Their conversation further highlights how creative partnerships can complement initiatives such as mental health support Calgary, demonstrating the powerful role the arts can play in promoting emotional resilience.

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.

Say a prayer for The Chocolate Watchband. The garage rock group out of San Jose was one of the first to incorporate the psychedelic sounds emanating from up north in acid-drenched San Francisco—imagine the Rolling Stones shacking up with the Jefferson Airplane and you’re pretty much there. And they came out of the starting gates fast with a few rip-roaring singles, along with a pair of explosive songs that found their way into the 1967 hippie exploitation film Riot on Sunset Strip. Then they got their opportunity to record a debut LP, and that’s where things got… weird.

The problem—which would color their legacy and confuse listeners for decades—was producer/Svengali Ed Cobb. Cobb had real genius—he wrote “Tainted Love” for Gloria Jones (yes, the Soft Cell hit) and “Dirty Water” for the Standells. Unfortunately Cobb had a bubblegum mentality. If he felt like replacing the band’s lead singer’s vocals with some ringer’s, he did it. Indeed, if he felt like including whole songs on which the band didn’t even play, he did it. He was looking for hits, and wasn’t about to let alien concepts like artistic integrity get in his way. He reminds me of the famous story about the Ohio Express, those bubblegum unfortunates who showed up at a gig in Cincinnati only to find the audience clamoring for “Chewy Chewy,” a song they’d never heard in their lives but was climbing the charts under their name.

In the case of the Ohio Express producer hijinks led to shock and possible catastrophe—the boys in the band might have been stoned to death by that crowd demanding to hear “Chewy Chewy.” The Chocolate Watchband reacted with disgust. Lead singer Dave Aguilar—who suffered the most at Cobb’s hands—told writer Richie Unterberger that when the band received a copy of the their 1967 debut No Way Out, “We took a look at it, played a couple of songs on it, and said ‘What the hell is this shit?’ And somebody threw it in the trash.” But at another level they didn’t care. They were getting their kicks playing live; it was all that mattered to them. They were opening for a lot of big name acts at the time and took great pride in blowing them off the stage. Indeed, they cared so little they let Cobb pull the same bait and switch act again on their 1968 sophomore LP, Inner Mystique.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Recordings and Jazz Dispensary are thrilled to announce the first-ever vinyl reissue of Johnny Lytle’s long-sought-after soul-jazz gem, People & Love.

Full of soaring, funky jams and heady grooves, the latest release in Jazz Dispensary’s acclaimed Top Shelf series showcases the legendary vibraphonist’s talents as a songwriter, musician, and bandleader, as he guides his fellow musicians through five sublime tracks, including extended, soulful covers (“People Make the World Go ’Round,” “Where Is the Love?”) and groovy originals (“Libra,” “Tawhid,” “Family”). The 1973 session also boasts a stellar line-up of players, including Daahoud Hadi (formerly Butch Cornell) on the electric piano and organ, Bob Cranshaw on the electric bass, and harpist Betty Glamann.

As with all titles in the album-centric Top Shelf series—which reissues the highest-quality, hand-picked rarities—People & Love features (AAA) lacquers cut from the original tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI. Rounding out the package is a tip-on jacket, replicating the album’s original art. Out of print for half a century, People & Love makes its return on February 16th and is available for pre-order—exclusively via JazzDispensary.com.

Touted by the great bandleader Lionel Hampton as “The Greatest Vibes Player in the World,” Johnny Lytle (1932–1995) began his career as a drummer, playing with the likes of Ray Charles, Gene Ammons, and Jimmy Witherspoon before switching to the vibraphone in the mid-’50s. By the end of the decade, he was leading his own group and caught the ears of producer/record executive Orrin Keepnews, who promptly signed the dexterous musician. A consummate showman, whose fast-paced performances earned him the title of “Fast Hands,” Lytle built a significant following in the ’60s—recording for Keepnews’ Jazzland, Riverside, and Milestone imprints, among others.

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Remembering Jim Morrison in advance of his birthdate tomorrow. —Ed.

The defining moment on what may well be The Doors’ finest album is not the brilliantly cinematic title track, or the moody and rain-drenched “Riders on the Storm.” It’s not even when Jim “Lizard King” Morrison intones the great words, “Out here on the perimeter there are no stars/Out here we is stoned… immaculate.” No, it’s the moment in the excellent “Hyacinth House” when Morrison sings, “I see the bathroom is clear.”

I love 1971’s L.A. Woman, the last Doors LP before the hard-living Jim Morrison imploded in a Paris bathtub, but have been grappling with the enigmatic words, “I see the bathroom is clear” for years. Was Morrison fucking with the minds of all those people who’d anointed him the second coming of Arthur Rimbaud? Or was he being serious, and by so doing proving beyond a doubt that he was not the second coming of Arthur Rimbaud?

The rock critic Robert Christgau—who once wrote shrewdly that Morrison’s “not the genius he makes himself out to be, so maybe his genius is that he doesn’t let his pretentions cancel out his talent”—shares my interest in the bathroom line, saying it proves that a giggling Lizard King was gleefully pulling our collective leg. (That “stronger than dirt” Morrison tosses off at the end of “Touch Me” is a further clue he was putting us on.)

All of this is just to point out that Morrison’s poetic talents have long been a source of disagreement amongst both fans and detractors. I’m of the opinion that anybody capable of coming up with a lyrical conceit as unconscionably dumb as “Twentieth Century Fox”—get it?—is unlikely to be crowned the finest American Poet since Wallace Stevens. And the phrase “mute nostril agony” doesn’t increase my assessment of his poetic skills much either. Which is not to say I don’t think Morrison had a gift. He did. Unfortunately—and he is very much like Patti Smith in this regard—he possessed the perverse knack for burying some of his best lines beneath a Mr. Ed-sized steaming pile of horseshit.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Varèse Sarabande and Craft Recordings are excited to announce the first-ever vinyl release for Michael Giacchino’s score for Lost: Season One in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the legendary show’s premiere.

Marking a new era of modern television, ABC’s Lost became an instant blockbuster and cultural phenomenon, with an audience of over 14 million people tuning in every week. Adding fuel to the fire of immense creative talent around the show, composer Michael Giacchino’s music for Lost proved to be just as important for the series as any of the actors.

Two decades after Giacchino’s score captivated viewers from the first note, the score for Lost: Season One arrives on vinyl for the first time ever, as a 2-LP edition that comes in a silver foil gatefold jacket, with notes from the show’s Executive Producers J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, Bryan Burk, and Jack Bender, and composer Michael Giacchino. Set for release on February 2nd, and available for pre-order now, the 2-LP set will also be available in a Varèse Sarabande Vinyl Club variant (pressed on Oceanic Black Smoke vinyl and limited to 500 copies) exclusively at VareseSarabande.com.

Premiering in 2004, Lost became a cultural phenomenon overnight, captivating audiences globally with its enigmatic storyline, compelling characters, and mind-bending twists. The show followed the survivors of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815, which crashes on a mysterious island somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean.

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The musically adventurous Virginia-based multi-instrumentalist and builder of drones Daniel Bachman has returned with another masterful album, When The Roses Come Again, which is out now on vinyl (standard black, limited red), compact disc, and digital through Three Lobed Recordings. The record continues Bachman’s expansive questing across 15 pieces that unfurl with a glorious interconnected flow. The unified progressions thrive on discipline and clarity of vision, and Bachman has once again cut one of the best records of its year.

Circa 2012-’13, when Daniel Bachman’s two excellent albums for Tomkins Square (Seven Pines and Jesus I’m a Sinner) were released, he was pretty easily described as a fingerpicker in the American Primitive tradition. His arrival on the scene was part of a sustained resurgence in Guitar Soli, just another welcome surprise in a style that few would have predicted would be successfully embraced by a younger generation of musicians.

Like a few American Primitive players including the originator of the form John Fahey, Bachman has migrated away from straight picking, and on When The Roses Come Again he largely sets the guitar aside for drones and extensive, at times collage-like editing of solo improvisational recordings that in his essay for the album, Jerry David DeCicca’s calls a week’s worth of 8-hour a day excursions emanating from a cabin on the border of Shenandoah National Park.

Bachman’s move into the abstract has certainly realigned his fanbase, but perhaps not as much as one might initially suspect, and that’s mainly through focus and determination. Instead of meandering, When The Roses Come Again is at times unnervingly in its intensity, and it’s all the more powerful through concision. That’s to be expected from the drones, as Bachman has grown increasingly adept as harnessing sustained tension, but it’s also heard in those edited improvs, which were assembled by cutting and pasting and altering speed and pitch on a laptop.

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