VIA PRESS RELEASE | Due for release this March on Outer Battery Records, Live 1982 is a newly unearthed and ferocious live album capturing cult anti-heroes Void at the height of their power—raw, chaotic, and utterly uncompromising.

Formed in Columbia, Maryland, just north of Washington, DC, Void emerged from unlikely surroundings to become one of the most confrontational bands of the early DC hardcore scene. Their debut in 1980 at the first-ever Wilson Center show—a legendary 15-band marathon largely organised by the Bad Brains—immediately marked them out as a band apart.

Featuring vocalist John Weiffenbach, guitarist Bubba Dupree, Chris Stover on bass, and drummer Sean Finnegan, Void’s sound defied structure, with songs threatening to fly apart at any moment. Every member played at maximum speed, the resulting discord and controlled chaos elevating the quartet to a more dangerous and extreme plane.

Containing pivotal live recordings, Live 1982 professionally captures two crucial moments in the band’s history. The A-side documents Void’s incendiary April 1982 performance at the Wilson Center, recorded just months before the release of the legendary Faith/Void split LP. Sharing the bill with Minor Threat, The Faith, Iron Cross, and Double O, the band delivered a set packed with hardcore classics such as “Ignorant People” and “Who Are You?”

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Celebrating Chris Desjardins on his 73rd birthday. —Ed.

Any shelf dedicated to classic California punk requires representation by The Flesh Eaters of Chris Desjardins, aka Chris D. Never a bad record has he made under that moniker, but the finest of them remains the talent-drenched and enduringly brilliant 1981 LP A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die. 

I first learned of Chris D.’s work in the latter portion of the 1980s, my discovery largely aided by the diligent underground music press of the era, in particular the scribbling of Byron Coley. While numerous zines featured reviews of both the Flesh Eaters and Chris D.’s band of the period The Divine Horsemen, it was really Coley that helped to put Desjardins’ art in context.

In fact, Coley’s such a determined champion of the man’s work that his new liners for this reissue aren’t an extra so much as a prerequisite. And the insight was found in more than just reviews, articles, and prior sleeve notes, as Coley and Forced Exposure publisher/writer Jimmy Johnson conducted an extensive interview with Desjardins for issue #12 of their reliably hefty “quarterly” mag. The duo also provided space in the back for “Chris D.’s Video Guide,” an enjoyable and extremely enlightening tour of the guy’s VHS collection.

I’d already sized Desjardins up as a major part of the USA’s roots punk brigade, his output landing in the same rough region as The Cramps, X, The Blasters, The Plugz, and The Gun Club, but the conversation in FE presented him as an uncommonly astute member of the punk community (especially when compared with the average Flipside chat).

Furthermore, his movie writings offered a vibrant critical viewpoint, one that blended a love of low-budget American flicks categorized by Michael Weldon as Psychotronic with a healthy dose of early auteurist perspective (lots of Hitchcock and films noir), considerations of New Hollywood (Polanski, Schrader) and global art cinema (Buñuel, Fassbinder, Makavejev).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Kishi Bashi has announced a 10th anniversary reissue of his critically acclaimed 2016 album, Sonderlust, which will be released on February 27th, 2026 via Joyful Noise Recordings.

To celebrate, he’s shared the previously unreleased B-side “Harpsi Chords,” a song that captures the balance of melancholy, introspection, and searching optimism that defines his music. “I was always excited about this song, and went as far as to record the strings on it,” Kaoru Dill-Ishibashi, AKA Kishi Bashi, says of the song. “I don’t think it matched the tone of Sonderlust, and so it was a difficult decision to leave it off.”

Now available for pre-order, the Sonderlust (10th Anniversary Edition) features updated artwork from Ssin Kim, the South Korean artist behind the original cover. “The first piece was called End of the Beginning. It was dark, pessimistic; about the end of life,” Dill-Ishibashi explains.

“The new one, made post-COVID, feels more optimistic. It’s interesting that she’s changed, just like I have. When you’re younger, the world can feel overwhelming. As you age, you start to see your place in it, become more pragmatic, less anxious. I think that’s what this new art captures, a sense of perspective, of hope.”

Last fall, Kishi Bashi announced a 2026 headlining tour around Sonderlust’s anniversary, during which he’ll perform the album in full. The run begins in late March with performances at Boise, ID’s Treefort Music Fest and Knoxville, TN’s Big Ears before taking him across the country—including an April 3rd stop at Chicago, IL’s Thalia Hall and an April 11th show at New York, NY’s Irving Plaza.

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Born in Busan, South Korea, and currently based in New York City, pianist Haeun Joo releases her second album, Just Gravity, on compact disc and digital January 16 via Brooklyn’s unstoppable fount of heightened improvisation, 577 Records. Alternating Joo solo with trio interactions of sharp, vibrant depth featuring bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Steven Crammer, the set is highly effective in showcasing Joo’s range of emotions and technical ability. This is assured music that holds promise for further growth.

Haeun Joo has cited Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, and Fred Hersch as primary influences. All three tangibly inform Joo’s playing on her debut We Will Find, which came out in 2021 on the Next Level label. Its eight selections offer a warm, contemplative quartet that stays largely inside (while not playing it safe) through the prowess of Matt Holman on trumpet and flugelhorn, Doug Weiss on bass, and Ronen Itzik joining Joo, who plays exceptionally well along with singing in a wordless style that’s joyousness is highly pleasurable to the ear.

There is no singing by Joo on Just Gravity, but the absence doesn’t register as a lack, as her latest builds a distinct temperament by taking big improvisational plunges without losing the lyrical quality that stood out on her debut. While this current of expressive beauty is most pronounced in the solo pieces, it is not lost amongst the trio action that widens the album’s musical reach.

Opening track “Salt and Silence” is, in some ways, Just Gravity in miniature. It starts calm and pretty and essentially solo (there are some subtle bowed accents by Tordini underneath), only to gradually unfold into a glorious thicket of three-way exploration. The interactions become considerably intense without tipping over into the harried.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MoFi), the renowned leader in high-fidelity audio reissues, is proud to unveil the 40th Anniversary 180g 45RPM 2LP edition of Stevie Nicks’ platinum-certified 1985 album Rock a Little. The vinyl is available for order on January 16 (here), with the SACD to follow at a later date (pre-order here).

Mastered at MoFi’s California studio, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, strictly limited to 4,000 numbered copies, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, the platinum-certified album was recorded for a reported one million dollars and teems with a head-spinning array of colors, textures, and dreamscapes. Sourced from the original analog tapes (1/4” / 15 IPS Dolby A analog copy to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe), this reference-grade reissue is the first time the music is conveyed with proper balance, dimensionality, and positioning. The degrees of spaciousness, headroom, and dynamics are nothing less than inspiring.

Nicks’ boundless enthusiasm for the project helped cement the album as an essential piece of ‘80s pop lore. The sonic advantages of the reissue extend to the statement-making opener “I Can’t Wait,” shot through with serious drama, and the snapping rhythmic pace and big hooks of “Imperial Hotel,” a standout moment in her solo catalog. The record, crafted by the likes of Benmont Tench and Waddy Wachtel, explores loneliness and the secrets we keep to ourselves. The album features her passionate performance of Chas Sanford’s “Talk to Me,” a Top 5 smash.

Moreover, surrender to the gravitas of the closing “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You,” a piano ballad composed about the death of Joe Walsh’s three-year-old daughter. As Nicks asserts earlier on the album, she sings for things money can’t buy. So, rock a little, yes, but dare to feel even more.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | After their 1993 release Betti-Cola ruled the campus airwaves for three consecutive months, cub came out with this quirky gem: Come Out Come Out. The purveyors of cuddlecore lit the fire with Betti-Cola, but this one burned the house down and solidified cub and Mint Records in indie record land.

Longtime fans of cub may still have their own copy of the charming triple 7” vinyl that Come Out Come Out was originally released on in 1995, likely picked up during the band’s extensive touring where they shared stages with artists such as They Might Be Giants, Sebadoh, Elliott Smith, Yo La Tengo, Sloan, The Muffs, Magnetic Fields, DOA, Rancid, NOFX, Seam, The Coctails, Sun Ra Arkestra, De La Soul, The Evaporators, and Zumpano.

In 2007, Come Out Come Out was reissued with bonus tracks, and now Mint Records is finally releasing the album on a 12” vinyl, with the track list and original artwork by Fiona Smyth totally reimagined. “I was considering the ways that Come Out Come Out could be reimagined for a special 30th Anniversary edition,” says guitarist Robynn Iwata.

“We wanted to design the release around a single vinyl 12″ in a gatefold sleeve, and that led to the necessity of a remaster specifically tailored to wax. While working through some experiments in my studio for suggestions to the mastering plant on how those remasters might sound best, I also hit upon the idea of a track re-ordering that differed from the original triple vinyl 7″ and CD—one that attempted to make the listening experience a bit more consistent and impactful.”

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Pink Floyd’s album Wish You Were Here was released in 1975, and listening to it today, it sounds like the soundtrack for these times. At the end of 2025, it was given a big box archival release, and the quality of this new reissue is commensurate with the importance of the album.

The release came two years after the group’s monumental Dark Side of the Moon. Following up on that album was nearly impossible, but Wish You Were Here is a strong record. While Dark Side of the Moon reflected a variety of emotions and themes that tackled growing old, dying, the passing of time, greed, a world out of control due to rapid advances in technology, and so much more, Wish You Were Here, while still touching on some of these themes, was very different.

The central theme of the album was very much about loss. It was about loss of innocence, a planet out of control and, on a very personal level for the group, the loss of their original guiding light, Syd Barrett, who left the band due to severe mental problems from drug abuse while they were making only their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets in 1968, with original members Roger Waters, Rick Wright, and Nick Mason joined by new guitarist David Gilmour. And, strangely enough, Barrett made a surprise appearance in the studio one day while the group was making the album.

There is an unsettling, eerie, almost post-apocalyptic feel to the music. The music is filled with longing, regret, and sadness. While delving even further into the use of synthesizers, there is also beautiful acoustic guitar work by Gilmour, as well as subtle jazzy touches. In fact, it is the subtleties and jazz tinges that are more pronounced on this new remaster of the album, particularly on the vinyl records.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Not many artists record two highly collectible, self-titled albums 10 years apart. But singer-songwriter-keyboardist Leon Ware pulled off that unlikely feat, first with his debut solo record for United Artists in 1972, and then with this one, released by Elektra in 1982.

What he did in between was almost as noteworthy, writing and producing material for Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Minnie Riperton, and Marvin Gaye, for whom he helmed the classic I Want You record. So, the pump was primed for Ware’s 1982 release, which featured Ware’s soaring falsetto (which some compared to Gaye’s) over arrangements by the legendary Marty Paich, with fiery contributions by saxman Gato Barbieri and vocalist Flora Purim (duetting with Ware on the classic “Somewhere”).

As is often the case with cult classics, Leon Ware didn’t sell initially, and in fact got him dropped from Elektra; but it’s emerged as a key early-‘80s R&B release, with “Why I Came to California” a particular latter-day favorite. For its first US vinyl reissue, Real Gone Music is pressing this cult classic on orange crush vinyl.

Among numerous shifts in personnel, Jamie Stewart is the founding and constant member of Xiu Xiu since the outfit’s formation in 2002, but for their last pair of albums, the core lineup has solidified into Stewart, Angela Seo, and David Kendrick. It’s this trio that shapes, with various additional contributors, the dozen cover songs heard on new album Xiu Mutha Fuckin’ Xiu: Vol. 1, which releases January 16 on vinyl in various color configurations, compact disc, and cassette through Polyvinyl. Collecting a project that began in 2020, the finished works are adventurous yet cohesive.

Covers albums from a single act, when corralling material from assorted sources rather than pinpointing one artist or band (as Stewart did with Nina, their 2013 tribute to Nina Simone) or focusing on a theme (such as the 2016 Record Store Day release Xiu Xiu Plays the Music of Twin Peaks) are most often hit and miss affairs. Occasionally, a set of covers that’s dedicated to various artists can be consistently bland, and less frequently, an utterly disastrous, embarrassing affair.

There’s likely something about stylistic source range that allows for peaks and valleys of inspiration. A collection of micro tributes is also possibly less burdensome when compared to a large-scale single artist salute. But even so, a covers album from a single act that’s focused on material from diverse sources that ultimately shapes up as steadily superb is as rare as, indeed rarer than, the unmitigated catastrophes.

Xiu Mutha Fuckin’ Xiu: Vol. 1 gets in the ballpark of being consistently excellent, perhaps in part because the songs were released individually and then collected as an album after completion and satisfaction rather than conceived as a single release from inside a short timeframe. There are also some thematic realities to consider, including a pocket of songs that fit into an electronic/industrial framework.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Band of Horses announce they will celebrate the 20th birthday of their Gold-certified 2006 debut album Everything All The Time with a newly expanded 20th Anniversary Edition, out on March 20, 2026 via Sub Pop.

The expanded 19-track edition is accompanied by an additional LP of bonus tracks, including the 2005 tour EP, a trove of previously unreleased studio and live tracks, and rarities like “The End’s Not Near” (as featured on The O.C.) and a demo version of the double Platinum single “The Funeral.” The album has been fully remastered for the anniversary edition, with the artwork refreshed and expanded into a gatefold jacket, including new liner notes by the album’s producer, Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, Built To Spill, Modest Mouse, Father John Misty).

In his liner notes, Ek shares, “I’ve always believed that albums need to feel special and should transcend the recording process. I want records that I produce to feel like you can walk into them, to have a three-dimensional depth. The music should stay as fresh and exciting as the first time you heard it. Achieving this requires a lot of time, trust, and effort in the studio, but it pays off in the end. Twenty years on, I still think Everything All The Time exemplifies this fully.”

Reflecting on the anniversary, Band of Horses’ Ben Bridwell adds, “This album made all of my dreams come true. Forever grateful for the desperation that fueled its inspiration.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The Emotions were one of the greatest girl groups of all time.

Girl group greatness, courtesy of the Chicago-based Hutchinson Sisters (with Theresa Davis on this record) and co-producers Isaac Hayes, David Porter, and Ronnie Williams! Recording at Muscle Shoals and Stax studios seems to have added a little grit to The Emotions’ sound, too; this 1971 classic on the Volt label offers the perfect blend of sweet and sassy.

“Show Me How” was the hit, but it’s “Blind Alley” that made Untouched one of the most collectible albums of its kind: that track’s one of the most sampled in all of pop and hip hop, most notably by Big Daddy Kane (“Ain’t No Half-Steppin’”) and Mariah Carey (“Dreamlover”).

Pressed in black and clearwater blue vinyl editions, and cut ALL-ANALOG from the original two-track master.

Celebrating Wayne Coyne on his 65th birthday. —Ed.

Attention psychonauts! We interrupt your lysergic day trip across the fifth dimension to announce that the musical programme has been changed. Instead of The Beatles’ 1967 LP Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band—which depending on your point of view is either thee ultimate psychedelic masterpiece or a middling work chiefly distinguished by its revolutionary recording techniques, which in effect turned the studio into a de facto fifth Beatle—you’ll be hearing 2014’s With a Little Help from My Fwends, The Flaming Lips’ track-by-track re-imagining of The Beatles LP. As a result, you can expect significant turbulence, fuzz, distortion, dissonance, noise, and oh yeah, Miley Cyrus, along with numerous other fwends of the band. In short, fasten your seat belts because there are interstellar speed bumps ahead, and hallucinations in your rear view mirror will be closer than they appear.

You have to admire the Flaming Lips’ pluck. Wayne Coyne and the boys might have thrown us a dayglo marshmallow along the lines of 1999’s easy-on-the-ears The Soft Bulletin. Instead they came through with a nerve-jarring and challenging aural experience that harkens back to their Oklahoma days of unconscious screaming. The LP is enormous fun, but not for the faint of ear, and I have no doubt there are Beatles fans who find it nothing short of an act of desecration. The Flaming Lips—and their bwesties—gleefully fold, spindle and mutilate The Beatles’ classic, but their version has moments galore of beauty and wonder—they’re simply buried in a lot of white noise. Can cacophony be lovely? With a Little Help from My Fwends answers the question in the affirmative.

With a Little Help from My Fwends is a better adaptation than The Flaming Lips’ 2009 reworking of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, which is a mite surprising given that the Lips’ views on existence have always been surprisingly… dark. Death has always been a preoccupation—from their early days through “Do You Realize” on 2002’s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, and songs like “Evil Will Prevail,” “Charles Manson Blues,” and “Five Stop Mother Superior Rain” (with its lines “My hands are in the air/And that’s where they always are/You’re fucked if you do, and you’re fucked if you don’t/Five stop mother superior rain”) don’t exactly reflect the sunny surrealism of their live shows.

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