VIA PRESS RELEASE | In his 50-year tenure as conductor of The Boston Pops, Arthur Fiedler transformed the Boston Symphony Orchestra offshoot into perhaps the most renowned pops orchestra in the world.

A natural showman, the maestro fervently believed in broadening the reach of classical music to a wide audience. He famously incorporated the music of The Beatles into his programs and began the tradition of the Pops concert and fireworks every July 4th on Boston’s Esplanade. Under his auspices, The Boston Pops made more recordings than any other orchestra in the world. Along with the Fourth, one holiday was closely associated with Fiedler and the Pops: Christmas!

The orchestra introduced Leroy Anderson’s now-classic “Sleigh Ride” in 1948, and the very next year recorded it for RCA Victor. That first-ever recording, shockingly never before issued on CD, opens Real Gone Music and Second Disc Records’ definitive celebration of Arthur Fiedler and The Boston Pops’ holiday recordings.

The Ultimate Pops Christmas Party! lives up to its title with 2 CDs and 35 tracks of yuletide cheer in the grand and lavish Boston Pops fashion. Spanning 1949-1971, The Ultimate Pops Christmas Party! includes two full albums: the original 1959 Pops Christmas Party in RCA’s Living Stereo splendor and 1969’s new-to-CD Christmastime in Carol and Song.

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Celebrating Steve Miller on his 80th birthday. —Ed.

Steve Miller took the long and winding road to superstardom, putting out eight albums before he hit paydirt with bicentennial year smash Fly Like an Eagle. And there was a reason for his prolonged stint as a journeyman; most of those first seven albums were middling at best, and even Miller conceded as much.

Here’s Steve in the liner notes to 1972 comp Anthology: “Always before, you know, people more or less needed to be fans to like the albums. Oh, I mean there’d be some good cuts and a couple of not-so-good cuts, and then some cuts I don’t even like to remember. But Anthology is what I always wanted to make–two good LPs that’ll hold up.” Hardly a killer endorsement for his earlier work.

But all middling is not created equal, and I have a soft spot in my heart for the Steve Miller Band’s second LP, 1968’s Sailor. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a psychedelic rock masterpiece–that notion goes out the window right from the get go with the Pink Floydesque opening track “Song for Our Ancestors,” which is all whale farts and organ noodle and should have come with a tab of acid to render it interesting–but it includes more than its fair share of “good cuts.”

On Sailor–the last Steve Miller Band album featuring original members Boz “Lido Shuffle” Scaggs and keyboardist Jim Peterman–the group splits their affection for white blues and psychedelic rock more or less down the middle, and tosses in a couple of Dylan/Stones/Beach Boys homages while they’re at it. All of which is to say they’re all over the damn place, but still manage to turn what might have been an impossibly diffuse LP into a charmer.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | In 2003, longtime musical legends Little Feat presented a career-spanning set at The Pageant in St. Louis, MO. Their first live performance to be captured in high definition, the concert was an extraordinary celebration of their 30+ year career.

Mercury Studios is proud to feature this very concert on Blu-ray+2CD and digital video, when Little Feat: Highwire Act In St. Louis is released on November 3. Previously issued on DVD in 2004, this marks a digital upgrade for the concert film, as it’s being made available on Blu-ray for the very first time. This is also the first time the 2CD portion is being bundled with the video and the concert being available on digital video.

Originally founded by Lowell George (formerly of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention) and keyboardist/vocalist Bill Payne, Little Feat were an incredibly unique collective. Organically blending blues, Rock ‘N’ Roll, country, folk, and soul into Southern-brewed fusion, their funky yet impeccable musicianship led to such classics as “Dixie Chicken,” “Willin,’” “Oh, Atlanta,” and “Fat Man In The Bathtub.” Sadly, Little Feat went on hiatus with the passing of George in 1979, but their legacy reignited when the band resurfaced in the late ‘80s.

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Sublime Frequencies’ description of The Holy Mother: Madhuvanti Pal Plays the Rudra Veena makes it plain. It is the first ever full-length vinyl release featuring a woman playing the titular string instrument. Used in Hindustani music, and in particular, the North Indian classical style known as dhrupad, the rudra veena, when in the hands of a master, produces a sound that’s wonderfully expansive and indeed meditative. This 2LP holds two ragas spread across four sides with a runtime topping 90 minutes. Lovers of the drone, prepare to be blown away by Madhuvanti Pal’s ability to exquisitely extend. But adventurous (psych) rock fans should also take note. The record is out October 13.

To say that The Holy Mother: Madhuvanti Pal Plays the Rudra Veena is a revelatory release feels pretty accurate. No doubt there exists a pocket of Indian music fans who were pining away for a contemporary recording featuring the rudra veena, but for most everybody else, even those with a predilection for global sounds, this set, which is bluntly yet another gem for Sublime Frequencies, basically came out of nowhere.

The accompanying liner notes are richly informative, and while I’ll resist merely rephrasing them here, I will share a bit of background into Pal, who is noted in India as much as a builder of rudra veena instruments as she is a player. This is because her first rudra veena wasn’t exactly top-flight in quality (kinda like that first second hand guitar that won’t stay in tune), so she set out to learn how to build her own. Pal’s first was built in 2017, and she’s since supervised the construction of a fleet of new veenas.

Folks might be thinking of a sitar, but the rudra veena is classified as a stick zither and the sitar is a type of lute. And the rudra veena, at least the Dagar-style instrument that Pal plays, is distinctive in its consistent low-end, which often hits the ear like a massive double bass, except that many of those low tones bounce and wiggle in a manner that’s unique.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “There have been many biographies of Lou Reed, but Will Hermes has written the definitive life.” —⁠Lucy Sante, author of Low Life

Since his death ten years ago, Lou Reed’s living presence has only grown. The great rock-poet presided over the marriage of Brill Building pop and the European avant-garde, and left American culture transfigured. In Lou Reed: The King of New York , Will Hermes offers the definitive narrative of Reed’s life and legacy, dramatizing his long, brilliant, and contentious dialogue with fans, critics, fellow artists, and assorted habitués of the demimonde.

We witness Reed’s complex partnerships with David Bowie, Andy Warhol, John Cale, and Laurie Anderson; track the deadpan wit, street-smart edge, and poetic flights that defined his craft as a singer and songwriter with the Velvet Underground and beyond; and explore the artistic ambition and gift for self-sabotage he took from his mentor Delmore Schwartz.

As Hermes follows Reed from Lower East Side cold-water flats to the landmark status he later achieved, he also tells the story of New York City as a cultural capital. The first biographer to draw on the New York Public Library’s much-publicized Reed archive, Hermes employs the library collections, the release of previously unheard recordings, and a wealth of recent interviews to give us a new Lou Reed—a pioneer in living and writing about nonbinary sexuality and gender identity, a committed artist who pursued beauty and noise with equal fervor, and a turbulent and sometimes truculent man whose emotional imprint endures. While reading, I came across a recent article discussing a crypto presale tied to the reissue of lost recordings from underground artists of Reed’s era. The concept fascinated me—early investors would secure digital ownership of rare tracks before they were widely released, reshaping how forgotten music finds its audience. It made me wonder what Reed, ever at odds with the music industry, would think of a world where fans could own and trade pieces of his legacy in this way.

“Lou Reed: King of New York is a monumental work…an extraordinary achievement.” —⁠Michael Imperioli, author of The Perfume Burned His Eyes

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Petrol Records, UMe, and uDiscover Music, in partnership with This Day In Music Books, release the first ever book on INXS, written by their fans, Calling All Nations–A Fan History Of INXS. The book embodies a living history of the legendary global rock band in hardback form, as told through the stories, memories, and life-changing moments of INXS’s most passionate fans and strongest supporters. The impetus for Calling All Nations was to allow the band’s fans to share what INXS has meant to them throughout their lives in their own words, in turn helping tell the story of one of the greatest bands of all time.

Kirk Pengilly of INXS commented, “We are thrilled to have our fans come together to tell the story of INXS in their own words. Their support and passion have been instrumental in our success, and we are honored to have their contributions be a part of this book. Calling All Nations is a testament to the enduring legacy of INXS, and we hope it will continue to inspire and connect fans for generations to come.”

The book is a collective love letter between a worldwide fanbase and the internationally renowned band they continue to revere to this very day—and it’s a love they will continue to share and spread the word about for their entire lives. As a complement to the fans’ recollections, the band members have also contributed personal stories in the book for their legions of fans, whom they have always considered paramount to their success.

“As the manager and guitarist of our first band, The Farriss Brothers, to the day we became INXS, everything was about the fans,” Tim Farriss recalls. “We built our fan base through thousands of live shows that our manager, Chris Murphy, and our record companies, booking agencies, promoters, TV producers, festival organizers, radio programmers, and more could not ignore. The fans reinforced our self-belief and gave us the power to play the music we wanted to play. As a fan, whether your name is in the book or not, all are equally important, and we thank you.”

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In the age of ubiquitous vinyl reissues and on the heels of the CD reissue era, the music of Carly Simon has been available, but not given the fulsome and bespoke reissue editions it so rightly deserves.

The Clouds in My Coffee 3-CD box set from Arista in 1995 was a welcome, well-packaged overview of her career up until that time, but it in no way reflected the important place Simon’s music held on that 25th anniversary of her solo career. Simon recorded previously with her sister Lucy, as The Simon Sisters. There were also only four previously unreleased tracks on that set, which was disappointing. A good first step in placing Simon’s music in the proper context and in particular, in re-issuing her earliest music on vinyl, the way it should be heard, is this new two-LP set.

The music here is drawn from Simon’s first three albums: Carly Simon (1971), Anticipation (1971), and No Secrets (1972). She would record five more albums for Elektra, with these eight albums covering her entire 1970s output. These are defining albums of the 1970s singer-songwriter explosion. No Secrets stands alongside Tapestry by Carole King and Blue by Joni Mitchell as albums that were the cornerstone of that movement, but that also reflected the new voice of music from women at that time.

This two-LP set offers a selection of tracks from those first three albums, out of chronological order. There are only two tracks not from the albums: a demo of “Alone” and a cover of “Angel from Montgomery,” which did appear on the Clouds in My Coffee box. The set comes with a wonderful eight-page, album-sized booklet that includes photos, liner notes, and most notably an extensive conversation between Simon and Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman, moderated by Ted Olson. The inside of the gatefold also offers additional liner notes and photos, including some of Simon’s handwritten lyrics.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | In 1973, the best-selling album in America was The World Is a Ghetto by WAR. This fall, the multi-ethnic SoCal band is giving fans a new way to experience its mega-million-selling classic with a new 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition available exclusively for Record Store Day Black Friday.

The World Is A Ghetto: 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition is a one-of-a-kind 5-LP boxed set available exclusively at participating independent music retailers on November 24 while supplies last. Limited to 4,000 copies, the deluxe collection was curated by WAR’s producer, Jerry Goldstein, founding member Lonnie Jordan, and Jeremy Levine. It includes the original album, newly remastered, as well as six unreleased bonus tracks and unreleased “the making of” recordings that trace the evolution of each of the six original album tracks from the first note to the master take. The original album and bonus tracks are pressed on two gold-vinyl LPs, while “the making of” tracks are pressed on three black-vinyl LPs.

The World Is A Ghetto: 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition introduces six unreleased bonus tracks recorded during the sessions for the album. These previously unreleased recordings include original jams that later developed into future WAR songs. For example, versions of “War Is Coming” and “L.A. Sunshine” would appear on Platinum Jazz in 1977.

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Thelonious Monk’s 1957 LP Brilliant Corners, his third for the Riverside label, belongs in any serious collection of Modern Jazz. But only 4,000 people will be able to place Craft Recordings’ Small Batch edition of the album on their shelves. It’s out today, October 4, pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI using Neotech’s VR900 compound and cut via one-step lacquer process from the original tapes by Bernie Grundman. Each individually numbered set is nestled into a foil-stamped, linen-wrapped slipcase with an acrylic inset of the original artwork, a reproduction of the original tip-on jacket, frictionless packaging, and words by Ashley Khan. It suffices to say the set is an immaculate beauty to behold and hear.

Like the other greats of Modern Jazz, Thelonious Monk recorded a whole lot, in studio and captured in live performance. And in Monk’s case, the discography hasn’t been static, as documentation of gigs has been recently discovered, in one case rescued from a dumpster, to fan the flames of contemporary interest in one of the greatest of all jazz pianists.

But as fine as these new entries to the catalog have been, it’s important to not lose track of the recordings that established Monk’s status. Brilliant Corners is prime amongst them. To argue that this LP is the apex of his studio discography is in no way a contentious statement, as there are only two or three other candidates truly deserving of this distinction.

Brilliant Corners is doubly attractive as it heightened Monk’s profile in the 1950s. After emerging on the scene as a leader through essential records for Blue Note, he then lost his cabaret license, which kept him from performing live. Thereafter, he recorded for Prestige for a long stretch, then switched to Riverside as his fortunes improved. Along with returning to live performance, Brilliant Corners sold quite a few copies and also spotlighted Monk’s own compositions (his first Riverside album was a Ellington tribute and the second was made up of standards).

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PHILADELPHIA, PA | Royal Blood made a stop on their “Back to the Water Below” tour at the Fillmore in Philadelphia Saturday night. Touring to support their brand-new album of the same name, they’re bringing punk upstarts Bad Nerves along for the fun.

The night kicked off at 9PM, when Bad Nerves took the stage for a kinetic, loud, and fun set. The young punk band from Essex, in southeast England, released their debut album, Bad Nerves, in 2020. They wear their influences on their sleeves, as front man Bobby Nerves donned a Ramones shirt under a jacket onstage. The rest of the band is straight up throwback punk—they look the part and have the chops.

Bad Nerves has tons of attitude, the confidence of a veteran punk band, and are a ton of fun to watch. In true ’70s punk tradition, their garage punk riff heavy songs clock in at 2-3 minutes each, so their 30-minute set packed in 10 songs. They clearly seem excited to be on tour with Royal Blood, later coming out to watch their set, hang out at the merch stand, and greet fans like old friends. I’m kicking myself for not picking up a shirt.

Royal Blood (singer-bassist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher) took the stage at 10PM sharp. There were no worries about an unenthusiastic audience at the Fillmore Saturday night. From the opening notes of new release “Mountains at Midnight,” to the final notes of “Figure it Out” over an hour later, the Philadelphia crowd was loud and fully focused on the duo. Everyone knew all the words to all the songs and sang just as loudly as Kerr.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Rhino has entered into a long-term license agreement with The English Beat’s catalog and merchandise, marking the beginning of this exciting partnership with the release of an expanded version of the influential ska group’s 1980 debut, I Just Can’t Stop It.

The acclaimed album will be reissued as a 2-LP set on crystal-clear vinyl exclusively for Record Store Day Black Friday on November 24. The album is limited to 8,000 copies worldwide at participating indie retailers while supplies last. In addition, the band’s catalog is now available digitally through Rhino, including I Just Can’t Stop It and Special Beat Service.

Rhino Entertainment President Mark Pinkus expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership: “I am thrilled to have the incredible opportunity to work with the English Beat catalog. For Rhino to collaborate with such a legendary band is an absolute privilege, as it allows us to immerse ourselves in the timeless magic of their music, share in their creative brilliance, and contribute to the legacy of a group that has inspired generations.”

I Just Can’t Stop It (Expanded) includes the original album, a selection of rare mixes and live recordings. The original, which peaked at No.3 on the U.K. album chart, featured hit singles like “Hands Off…She’s Mine,” “Twist & Crawl,” and a fiery cover of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ “Tears Of A Clown.” The newly expanded version adds alternative mixes for all three songs and a dub version of “Stand Down Margaret.” The double album also includes live recordings from 1982 for “Mirror In The Bathroom,” “Best Friend,” and more.

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As a vital component in the thriving late ’70s-early ’80s UK dub scene, Creation Rebel amassed a worthy discography. On October 6, after 40 years, the trio of core members Crucial Tony, Charlie “Eskimo” Fox, and Mr. Magoo return with a new record, Hostile Environment, that is as engagingly bent as its grooves are deep. Its high quality is no surprise, as the list of guest contributors is substantial, and there are archival recordings from the late deejay Prince Far I in the equation. Furthermore, the outfit’s constant associate Adrian Sherwood aided with production as he released the results on yellow vinyl and four panel digipak CD on his On-U Sound label.

As told by Adrian Sherwood, who was there from the start, Creation Rebel initially came together as a studio project and backing group. The first record released by Sherwood, not on On-U Sound but on the Hitrun label, was credited to Creation Rebel. Issued in 1978, Dub From Creation features productions and vocals from Prince Far I that were gifted to Sherwood for use on the record.

This sets up a robust circularity, for as mentioned, this return to action from Creation Rebel gets boosted by two Prince Far I vocals that were discovered in the vault, and right off the bat in “Swiftly (The Right One),” where the deejay’s voice gets speed altered until he sounds like a groggy mountain giant. It’s just one part of a deliciously twisted dub scheme that includes some sweetly unusual synth playing from the noted reggae affiliated musician-producer Gaudi.

Sherwood’s telling of the Creation Rebel story details an increase in vocals that found them straddling the roles of backing band and proper group, but it’s still nice to hear they’re capable of spirited instrumentals like the melodica-driven “Stonebridge Warrior.” But a hearty lead-backing vocal weave (complete with toasting and a little off-kilter scatting) is integral to the forceful impact of “Under Pressure.”

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