Recorded in 1981 but not released until 1987 on Restless Records with an assist by Steve Wynn’s discerning Down There label, Pigus Drunkus Maximus by Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs is a key punk-blues document. Neck deep in inspired covers, the record kicks like the Blasters circa their second album crossed with The Doors at their leanest and meanest, and with a full injection of guitar snarl. A long-overdue remastering and reissue is now available on vinyl and for the first time on compact disc, January 16, through Blind Owl Records.

Although their fanbase was wide-ranging, there’s no denying that the biggest portion of Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs supporters were aligned with the punk scene. For listeners amenable to the sounds of X, The Gun Club, The Flesh Eaters, The Plugz, The Cramps, The Blasters, and Los Lobos, it was very likely that a copy of Pigus Drunkus Maximus, either on LP or cassette, was close at hand.

Reinforcing the durability of Top Jimmy’s threads in the early 1980s, Cali-centric roots punk weave was a fair amount of overlap with the bands listed above. Fronted by, naturally, Top Jimmy (aka James Paul Koncek, who passed in 2001), the core band as heard on their sole LP featured guitarists Dig The Pig (Richard Aeilts) and Carlos Guitarlos (Carlos Ayala), bassist Gil T (R. Gilbert Isais), drummer Joey Morales, and saxophonist Steve Berlin.

Having played with The Blasters, Los Lobos, The Plugz, and The Flesh Eaters, it’s Berlin who’s the common bond. Pianist Gene Taylor of The Blasters joined in for the album, and D.J. Bonebrake of X (who also played with The Flesh Eaters) sat in on drums for the majority of the session.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Death Cult laid the groundwork for the band we now know as The Cult, and in 2023, to mark the band’s 40th anniversary, Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy along with John Tempesta on drums and Charlie Jones on bass, revived Death Cult for a special run of shows.

Out on January 16th, 2026, Paradise Live is a 16-track live album that documents this rebirth of Death Cult. Recorded at the iconic Albert Hall in Duffy’s hometown of Manchester on November 18th, 2023, the release will be available on double LP, CD, and digitally. Two editions of the vinyl will be available. A black splatter edition is available exclusively from the band’s webstore, and a white splatter edition is available everywhere else.

As New Noise magazine wrote, “Ian and Duffy are brothers in musical cause and are counterparts to a quintessential era of Gothic New Wave or First Wave, Camden-era punk. Death Cult were the brothers of The Clash and Siouxie and The Banshees. They were in the scene. And now they are progenitors of alternative music from Los Angeles.”

Ian spoke to Spin in October who explained that “the idea of resurrecting the Death Cult name came to Astbury after spending time with those old songs, while also noticing a new generation of artists embracing a similar darkwave sound (Vowws, Cold Cave, Molchat Doma, Twin Tribes, et al.), which he likes to call “gothic futurism.” It felt relevant to the times, and his feelings for a world racing toward a dead end in the 21st Century, which he describes with a grim stream of labels: “Zero point, dystopia, a glitch in the matrix…”. “I became fascinated with that period of music again,” Astbury says. “It just instinctually felt like picking up on a dystopian frequency.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | What do executives from iconic American guitar brands Fender, Gibson, Taylor, D’Angelico, and Martin Guitars’ legendary builder Dick Boak have in common with former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and former Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman?

And what do four of the world’s most influential online guitar teachers—Marty Schwartz (USA), Justin Sandercoe (UK), Tyler Larson (USA), and Charlie Wallace (New Zealand)—share with distinguished academics, a neuroscientist, a CNN medical analyst, and owners of some of the most iconic guitar shops in the US and UK? The answer is String Theory: Guitar Obsessed, a feature-length documentary that explores the passion, psychology, culture, and obsession behind the guitar—told by legends, innovators, and some truly unexpected voices.

Directed by 2x Emmy Award–winning filmmaker Jarett Bellucci and created alongside comedian and writer Randy Levin, String Theory: Guitar Obsessed takes a humorous yet reverent look at why the guitar continues to shape lives across generations, professions, and continents.

Bellucci and Levin first met in the spring of 2022 while working on a television commercial. Bonding immediately over their shared love of guitar, Levin soon pitched Bellucci the idea for a small documentary. Initially envisioned as a 10–15 minute YouTube video, the project quickly grew beyond expectations.

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Celebrating Blixa Bargeld on his 67th birthday. —Ed.

At long last, a rock album capable of shattering my nerves. I’ve sat through all manner of horrible noise for decades, but the sheet-metalheads and industrial music pioneers Einstürzende Neubauten are the first to make me wish I was deaf.

Einstürzende Neubauten may translate as Collapsing New Buildings to English speakers, but they don’t sound like an architectural disaster to me. They sound like the foundry where I worked during my summer years at college only worse, because Einstürzende Neubauten are both foundry and insane asylum, and the lunatics have taken over the machinery.

Is Einstürzende Neubauten’s Industrial Revolution clang and clamor a negative commentary on the robotic dehumanization celebrated by the futurists in Kraftwerk? A conservative retreat to the glory days of steam power, when manly men forged manly things with their manly calloused hands? The final revenge of metal shop kids over the pencil-neck geeks destined for lucrative jobs in the towering high-rises of the private sector? All are questions worth pondering, but having just listened to Einstürzende Neubauten’s 1981 debut Kollaps, I have too much of a headache to think clearly.

Theirs is, I must admit, a novel concept–establish rhythmic din by means of building tools, scrap metal and sundry other detritus of the machine age, then set Blixa Bargeld to the task of barking, growling, muttering, moaning, shrieking, bellowing and ululating all over them. It works wonders, that is if your idea of a good time is having ground augers shoved in your ears whilst being beaten over the skull with a 2-1/2 inch split head hammer.

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Remembering Bobby Weir. —Ed.

Well I’ll be damned. I didn’t think Bob Weir, the eternal boy howdy of the Grateful Dead, had it in him. After decades of coasting—his last great solo offering, 1972’s Ace, was released a shocking 44 years ago—here comes Weir, looking as weather worn as Grizzly Adams in his white beard, or like the great D.B. Cooper finally emerging from the Washington state wilderness, with an album that is not just good, but downright excellent. It just goes to show you—never count a fellow out until he’s six feet underground, and for at least three days at that.

2016’s Blue Mountain is an album of “cowboy songs,” according to Weir’s collaborator Josh Ritter, and was inspired, according to Weir, by his days as a 15-year-old ranch hand in Wyoming. But this is not a collection of other people’s music; Weir had a hand in writing the music for every song, while Ritter both contributed to the music and penned the better part of the lyrics. And so far as the descriptions of it as “campfire music” go I disagree; many of these songs are far too lush and musically sophisticated to cook weenies on a stick to.

But two things they are for sure: beautiful and thoughtful. They demonstrate that the eternal Peter Pan of the Dead has finally grown up and gotten wise, and has honed his songwriting skills in the process. Compared to his previous solo outing, 1978’s Heaven Help the Fool, which utilized lots of studio hacks and frankly sucked like an industrial vacuum cleaner, Blue Mountain is a cool breath of fresh Wyoming air.

Blue Mountain is the work of a man who has finally come face to face with his own mortality, as Weir demonstrates on the elegiac and lovely album closer “One More River to Cross,” in which he acknowledges he’s tired but nearing that final home in the bye-and-bye. And the very rhythmic “Lay My Lily Down” is an unreconstructed death ballad complete with rattling chains, and has Weir singing, “Dig a hole, dig a hole in the meadow/Dig a hole in the cold, cold ground/Dig a hole, dig a hole in the meadow/To lay my Lily down.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Recordings and HighTone Records are proud to kick off the year with a standout album from one of the greatest names in the Americana genre, Willie Nelson.

Originally released in 2010 and helmed by esteemed producer T Bone Burnett, the GRAMMY®-nominated album, Country Music, finds the iconic artist putting his distinctive touch on 15 country standards, including Hank Williams’ “House of Gold,” Ernest Tubb’s “Seaman’s Blues,” Merle Travis’ “Dark as a Dungeon,” as well as his very own 1959 single, “Man with the Blues.”

Arriving on February 27th and available for pre-order today, Country Music comes as a 2-LP set, housed in a gatefold jacket, while fans can find a selection of limited-edition pressings, including Sky Blue Swirl vinyl (exclusively at Barnes & Noble) and Opaque Grass Green (Books-A-Million). Country Music will also be available on CD and hi-res digital on February 27.

Before he became one of America’s most beloved figures, singer, songwriter, actor, and activist Willie Nelson was working behind the scenes in Nashville, penning country hits for the likes of Patsy Cline (“Crazy”), Billy Walker (“Funny How Time Slips Away”), and Faron Young (“Hello Walls”). Though he would soon find staggering success as a pioneer of the outlaw country sound, it was this formative period that shaped his artistry and established him as a force to be reckoned with. Half a century later, after countless awards and a range of musically diverse projects, he recorded his very first album of country standards.

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Ron Wood has had a remarkable musical career. After starting in London in the mid-1960s with The Birds, he played on many recordings and was a key part of both the original Jeff Beck Group and the original Faces, and has been a member of The Rolling Stones for 50 years. Three recent releases feature music from the Faces, The Rolling Stones, and an anthology that spans almost every part of his career, right up to the present day.

Although Wood was in the Jeff Beck Group and was also in a band and played on several records with Rod Stewart, his tenure in The Rolling Stones is formidable. The Black and Blue Super Deluxe box set reissue celebrates his grand arrival as a member of The Rolling Stones. Black and Blue was released in 1976 and was Wood’s first full album with the group, following Mick Taylor’s departure from the band. Taylor joined the Stones as a replacement for Brian Jones, before Jones’ death, and made his live debut with the group at the free Hyde Park concert the Stones put on in July 1969, which served as their musical memorial to Jones.

The Black and Blue album proved to be a pivotal release for the Stones. In the face of glam and disco, and just before punk exploded, the Stones began to shed their mid-’70s sound for something new. Mick Taylor was a consummate guitarist, and his departure from the group was not well-received by the other members. They loved his tasteful playing, which added a fluid grace to their more rough-and-ready, expansive ’70s work while having come from the same bluesy background as the other members of the band, notably his stint with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.

He was the perfect replacement for Jones. The Stones flirted with other guitarists to replace Taylor, including Harvey Mandel of Canned Heat, Wayne Pekins, Rory Gallagher, and, most notably, Jeff Beck. They ultimately settled on Wood, even though he was still in the Faces, and there seemingly could not have been anyone better to fill Taylor’s shoes, both in terms of playing ability and compatibility. They recorded the album over several months in Munich, Rotterdam, and Montreux, in tax exile.

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I recently spoke with Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods—frontman, social commentator, author, and actor.

Alongside the band’s thirteen albums, Jason has appeared in Peaky Blinders and stars in the new rave-era thriller Game, directed by John Minton and produced by Geoff Barrow (Portishead). We talk about drugs, therapy, breaking free from addiction, the birth of Sleaford Mods, artistic perspective, live performance, and the new record, Demise of Planet X out on Rough Trade on January 16th.

Tune in for a long, open listen.

Radar features discussions with artists and industry leaders who are creators and devotees of music and is produced by Dylan Hundley and The Vinyl District. Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer, and the co-creator and lead singer of Lulu Lewis and all things at Darling Black. She co-curates and hosts Salon Lulu which is a New York based multidisciplinary performance series. She is also a cast member of the iconic New York film Metropolitan.

Is this it? Really? This is the album that put The Strokes on the covers of god knows how many magazines, the album that put New York City back on the rock and roll map, the album that came in very close to the top of many magazines’ lists of the best albums of the first decade of the New Millennium? The album that changed the Free World?

Gimme a fuckin’ break.

I get the hype. I do. Good-looking lads from New York City, perhaps the world’s consummate rock and roll town, making said consummate rock and roll town relevant again after how long? New York City was dead, the Velvet Underground and the New York Dolls and Patti Smith and every goddamn band that made CBGBs famous and every goddamn band to come along after that (No Wave, ho hum) were ancient history, and please don’t toss off the names Lou Reed or David Byrne or Sonic Youth because they’re weren’t artists, they were curated cultural sacred cows and zombified sacred cows at that.

But these were the guys who gave the entire goddamn city mouth-to-mouth resuscitation? God help us all. Manhattan must have been even deader than I thought.

Because I’ve listened to the title track and opener of The Strokes’ 2001 debut LP Is This It more times than I can count, trying to discern exactly what it is that makes The Strokes a great rock and roll band, and I can’t get past the one-minute mark without falling into a coma. It’s a sing-song house-trained punk rock snooze.

But the band’s look and the hype and the rock journalists falling over one another to feature the band first, all of it reached a cultural boiling point, and The Strokes went off like a fireworks extravaganza over the Statue of Goddamn Liberty.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | To celebrate the life and heartbreaking loss of Jill Sobule in early May 2025, a series of tribute events—Jillith Fair – Loving Jill Sobule—was launched to celebrate her life, music, and enduring spirit. In honor of Sobule’s birthday this year, a Jillith Fair will take place at City Winery in New York on Friday, January 16 at 7:30pm to benefit the Jill Sobule Legacy Fund. Join us for Jill’s Birthday Bash for an evening of music, memories, and love to keep the good life going. Tickets available here.

The event will be hosted by Tammy Faye Starlite & Richard Barone and will additionally feature Antigone Rising, BETTY, Tracy Bonham, The Chapin Sisters, John Cowsill & Vicki Peterson, Marshall Crenshaw, Vance Gilbert, Jill’s Jagoffs, Jenni Muldaur, Judith Owen, Madeleine Peyroux, Lucy Wainwright Roche, Wesley Stace, Vance Gilbert, Tony Trischka, Loudon Wainwright III, and a surprise guest.

The Jill Sobule Legacy Fund was established to carry on Jill’s legacy, keep her songs alive, and help raise funds for the charities Jill championed. Jillith Fair – Loving Jill Sobule events are designed to be annual events going forward during her birthday month and during Pride Month. This month’s “Birthday Bash!” shows are happening in Nashville, TN at The Bluebird Cafe (Jan 16th), Northampton, MA at The Parlor Room (Jan 17th), New Orleans, LA at FAI International Conference (Jan 23rd, private), Philadelphia, PA at The Fallser Club (Jan 24th, WXPN welcomes).

Additionally, a “Jews Do Jill” event is happening in Denver, CO at Swallow Hill Music (Jan 24th). Pride Month shows will be announced this Spring for June in Cambridge, MA, Los Angeles, CA, Minneapolis, MN, New York, NY. Seattle, WA, Woodstock, NY, and many other US cities. A Pittsburgh, PA Jillith event will happen in October.