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.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the first vinyl reissue of Disappointment–Hateruma, the 1976 ALM Records release by percussionist Toshi Tsuchitori and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

The album is notable as Sakamoto’s first recording issued under his own name and represents one of the few occasions, he explored fully improvised music during the 1970s. It provides a vital document for understanding Sakamoto’s early development as a composer and performer, capturing a period when he was experimenting with ambient soundscapes and textured improvisation. This edition features original artwork, audio remastered by Heba Kadry and new liner notes by Andy Beta.

Ryuichi Sakamoto is widely recognized as one of the most important artists of his generation. At the time of Disappointment-Hateruma, he was still a student at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and active in Shinjuku’s experimental music circles. He was busy contributing to Transonic magazine, performing with the multimedia group Gakushudan, and working with musicians pushing the boundaries of jazz, free improvisation, and contemporary composition.

On his side, revered Japanese percussionist Toshi Tsuchitori, who had recently returned from New York, brought influences from Milford Graves’ approach to drumming, including African rhythms, ritualized performance, and a holistic approach that combined music, movement, and philosophy. Sakamoto and Tsuchitori had previously played together in Gakushudan, but neither considered those early encounters definitive.

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Remembering Elvis Presley, born on this date in 1935. —Ed.

1974’s Having Fun with Elvis on Stage is my favorite album by the King. On this bizarre throwaway you get snippets of Presley goofing off, having fun, cracking wise, spouting complete gibberish, and generally behaving like Robin Williams in full-blown manic mode before live audiences, quite possibly while stoned out of his legendary pompadour on serious narcotics. There are no songs. No signs of the Elvis who could deliver the goods on stage long after he ceased to produce great albums. This is Elvis unleashed, free to be his absurdist self, and the results are both surpassingly strange and weirdly touching.

As you’d expect this LP of often surreal stage banter—which is universally acknowledged as Elvis’ worst—has a dizzying and disjointed feel; you go abruptly from one monologue or audience interaction to another, without segues or warning. Having Fun with Elvis on Stage was a shameless money-grubbing ploy by Elvis’ rapacious manager Colonel Tom Parker, whose intention it was to milk his cash cow for every shekel he could get. But to anyone interested in treating Elvis as psychological study, it’s a goldmine.

It helps that Elvis has an adoring audience. He was the King, for God’s sake, and if he wants to act the role of his own court jester that’s just fine with the faithful who’d stuck with him through albums like 1963’s It Happened at the World’s Fair and 1965’s Harum Scarum. To call his fans undiscriminating is a massive understatement—they’d have no doubt made a gold record of Elvis Reads Excerpts from Mein Kampf. I’m sure some of the audience’s laughter on the album was of the nervous sort; those closest to the stage must have looked into his pinwheel eyes as he went full Andy Kaufman and realized the man was either on some very strong medicine or an off-the-charts lunatic, or both.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | CAM Sugar and Synth History present Synth Utopia Vol II, featuring rare selections from early Italian and French film soundtracks found in CAM Sugar’s extensive archives and curated by Synth History’s Danz CM—the self-produced musician, songwriter, and composer formerly known as Computer Magic. Within, unearthed and archived synth-laden material from the 1970s and early 1980s abound.

Featuring legendary composers like Ennio Morricone, Vangelis, Marcello Giombini, the collection highlights some of the early work by composers who would later become household names; take the new Danz CM remix of Fabio Frizzi’s “Sette Ragazze di Classe,” which translates to “Seven Dangerous Women.” It’s a 1979 film in which seven women decide to play a game to seduce as many aristocratic men as possible that few are aware exist in Frizzi’s catalogue.

Of Synth Utopia Vol II, Danz CM says: “People know that Ennio Morricone scored Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy, Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, John Carpenter’s The Thing, etc., but how many people know he started out scoring 1970s comedy and erotica (Quando la preda è l’uomo, 1972)? A lot of the tracks found on Synth Utopia Vol II come from erotic films; on Fabio Frizzi’s “Sette Regazze Di Classe,” I went in an Italo / Space-disco direction (as one does).

You’ll also find an early track by Vangelis from La Fête sauvage, a 1975 wildlife documentary that he scored before his breakthrough success as a composer. Years later he’d go on to create probably one of the most famous themes of all time in 1981 for Chariots of Fire, and then score Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner a year later. It’s neat to hear it all.”

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Globally, New Zealand’s Split Enz is often categorized as a New Wave act, based on a string of albums and singles that charted in the UK/US circa the early 1980s. However, the band was formed in 1972, initially as a folk-tinged combo sans drummer before integrating a kit and leaning into a progressive rock sound (of sorts) for a stretch that solidified Split Enz’s reputation in Australasia. Chrysalis Records’ 3LP/5CD set Enzyclopedia (Volumes One & Two) sheds vibrant illumination on this era. Those who only know the group as breakout Kiwi wavers will likely be surprised by the sounds herein.

To put the New Wave association aside, Split Enz are also noted as the melodically inclined precursor to the even more pop-oriented Crowded House. Taken together, they comprise New Zealand’s biggest musical export, with the exception of the contemporary electropop singer-songwriter Lorde.

Split Enz was formed in 1972 in Auckland by the songwriting partnership of vocalist Tim Finn and guitarist-vocalist Phil Judd, with bassist Mike Chunn, violinist Miles Golding, and flutist Mike Howard filling out the lineup. After securing live gigs, they debuted on record with the “For You” b/w “Split Ends” (the B-side, the original spelling of their name) on the Vertigo label; the single was distributed only in New Zealand.

The 45 is very much a ’60s hippie-era holdover in terms of atmosphere; its songs were later compiled on the 1979 album The Beginning of the Enz, which is included (with a different, preferably non-chronological sequence) on Enzyclopedia as LP 3 and CD 4. Altogether, this selection of recordings, made prior to their debut LP, Mental Notes, in 1975, delivers an enlightening and largely pleasant listen.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Third Man Records is proud to announce the first-ever live anthology from Ann Arbor, MI-based noise rock legends, Laughing Hyenas.

That Girl – Live Recordings 1986–1994 collects 18 ferocious tracks—painstakingly compiled by founding member John Brannon from his personal archive of cassette tapes and then transferred, mixed, and mastered by GRAMMY® Award-winning producer Bobby Emmett (Sturgill Simpson, Jack White, The Sights)—that showcase the band’s full-on sonic groove assault in its purest, most unadulterated and gloriously abrasive form.

Highlights include such hard-hitting classics as “Here We Go Again,” recorded live for NYC’s famed WNYU in 1990 and premiering today at all DSPs and streaming services. That Girl – Live Recordings 1986–1994 arrives via TMR digitally and on 2xLP colored vinyl (with Limited Edition 7”) on Friday, February 20. Pre-orders/pre-saves are available now.

If ever a band deserved an LP of live material, it’s the Laughing Hyenas. As Wolf Eyes’ Aaron Dilloway so eloquently put it, “The Laughing Hyenas were the scariest band I have ever seen.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Produced by Josephine “Jo” Bridges and signed to her We Produce imprint, The Temprees were a Memphis soul vocal trio powered by one of the great falsettos in pop music, that of Jasper “Jabbo” Phillips. Their 1972 debut Lovemen is aptly named; this is one of the greatest make-out R&B albums ever made, with one smoldering slow jam after another.

Their take on “Dedicated to the One I Love” is rightly considered the greatest version ever made, but “If I Could Say What’s on My Mind,” “Love…Can Be So Wonderful,” and “I Love You, You Love Me,” will get you and your partner’s hips swaying (and patch up any lovers’ quarrels tout suite, too). Stax didn’t really know what to do with soul this sweet (We Produce was a Stax imprint), so Lovemen languished commercially, but nowadays it’s recognized as a model of its kind.

For its first-ever LP reissue, Real Gone Music has cut Lovemen ALL-ANALOG straight from the original two-track album master, and pressed it up in two versions, one in black vinyl, the other in eco-friendly, sonically superior valentine red PET plastic. The heart on the front cover sums this one up.

The Beatles are arguably the most influential group in the history of pop music. Three recent releases reflect three different groups that have probably been the most influenced by the band, although one of them was most influenced by The Beatles in their second incarnation. It is also worth mentioning that one other group, ELO, should be included here, but they do not have a recent release for us to include.

Oasis is clearly not the first group to be influenced by The Beatles, or maybe even the last, but how significant that influence was propelled and underpinned their best work without making them merely derivative. Over the past several years, the group’s music has been reissued in many different configurations. Last summer, the band reunited for a 30th-anniversary stadium tour, which was by all accounts just short of a rock ‘n’ roll miracle.

One of the best of the spate of archival releases is the recent three-LP, vinyl reissue of their second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, released in 1995, one of many configurations. While their first album was a powerful debut and their records right after their sophomore effort were quite good, this album is the mother lode. It’s the best Brit-pop album (sorry, Blur and Pulp fans) and one of the best British albums of the 1990s.

The album features a collection of songs written by Noel Gallagher (who also co-produced the album), showcasing the group’s perfect balance between gritty rock and lush production. Listening to the album 30 years later is to be bowled over by the majesty of the music. It’s big and grand like U2, but scrappy like an indie band of drunken teenagers late on a Saturday night in Camden. Liam Gallagher was born to be a rock ‘n’ roll frontman, and his sneering vocals turn his brother Noel’s bewitching and heartfelt songs into convincing rock anthems. They are part of a long line of rock ‘n’ roll siblings who have that familial chemistry that can’t be duplicated.

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Archival releases don’t get much sweeter than Live in NYC 1979 by Stare Kits, a stylistically wild outfit formed in the city of their sole album’s title. Burning brief but bright on the outskirts of the nascent No Wave scene, a few members of Stare Kits proceeded on to bigger endeavors, but this vinyl offering is a striking early snapshot, consisting of live material taken from the band’s three live performances at the club Tier 3 plus studio rehearsals. Anyone who admires subterranean punk-adjacent spasms should attune their antennae to this set, a co-release from Feeding Tube and Negative Glam. It’s available now.

The four individuals who comprised Stare Kits during their fleeting existence were singer Angela Jaeger, guitarist Bob Gurevics, bassist Michael McMahon, and drummer Amy Rigby. McMahon is Rigby’s brother (she married Will Rigby of the dB’s). They both went on to Last Roundup, and she later played in the Shams, in duo with Wreckless Eric, and released a slew of solo discs.

Transplanted to London, Jaeger formed Drowning Craze with Simon Reymonde (later of Cocteau Twins) and was a member of Pigbag. It’s only Gurevics who lacks any credits post-Stare Kits. The skinny is that Stare Kits played all three of their shows at Tier 3, a crucial No Wave venue (the very cool and persistently underheard UT played their first show opening for Stare Kits).

Listening to Live in NYC 1979, it’s easy to place Stare Kits in close proximity to No Wave (Rick Brown of Blinding Headache, Information, and later Fish & Roses and Run On, lends saxophone to a cover of The Great Society’s “Grimly Forming”) but writer and Feeding Tube honcho Byron Coley’s observation that the band was honing a distinctive sound is a point well taken. Coley likens their approach to a handful of smart UK bands of the period and to UK DIY in general, and that’s also salient.

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