VIA PRESS RELEASE | GRAMMY® Award-winning rock band Portugal. The Man announces the July 17 digital release of In the Mountain in the Cloud (Deluxe Edition). The expanded edition celebrates the 15th anniversary of the group’s 2011 major-label debut, offering newer fans an opportunity to revisit this underrated, foundational album.

The new edition gathers highly sought-after remixes previously unavailable on digital streaming platforms, including a remix of “Got It All (This Can’t Be Living Now)” by Björn Yttling, which makes its streaming debut today. The remixes are joined by instrumental versions of every album track and a classic live performance of “So American” from KCRW’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic.” A stunning 4K upscaled version of the band’s short film “Sleep Forever” was also released this week to commemorate the 15th anniversary of its original release on June 6, 2011. The 13-minute film serves as a joint music video for “Sleep Forever” and “Got It All (This Can’t Be Living Now).”

Originally released on July 19, 2011, In the Mountain in the Cloud marked Portugal. The Man’s transition to the major-label stage, establishing the expansive pop-rock architecture that would later propel them to global superstardom with their 2017 multi-platinum smash “Feel It Still.” Produced by John Hill and mixed by Andy Wallace, the record features breakout singles “So American” and “Got It All (This Can’t Be Living Now),” showcasing frontman John Gourley’s signature falsetto and ambitious sonic vision.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Oscar and two-time GRAMMY-nominated singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop announces the 50th anniversary limited edition vinyl release of his landmark debut album Careless.

Out August 14 on his own Life’s A Bish Records, the release was remastered by legendary engineer Bernie Grundman (Prince, Joni Mitchell, Dr. Dre), who mastered the original 1976 release. It also includes two unreleased bonus tracks written during the same era, “Back Again” and “I Don’t Know You Anymore.” Pre-order the album here, with autographed copies available. Originally released in 1976 via Universal Music Group, Careless established Bishop as one of the most distinctive voices of his generation, featuring beloved classics such as theBillboard Hot 100 hit “On and On” (covered on Keith Urban’s upcoming album Flow State) and “Save It for a Rainy Day.”

Remarkably, the album also featured contributions from legendary artists including Eric Clapton, who performed electric slide guitar on “Sinking in an Ocean of Tears” and the guitar solo on “Save It for a Rainy Day,” alongside Chaka Khan and Art Garfunkel—an extraordinary lineup for a debut release that helped define its enduring legacy. Eric Clapton and Art Garfunkel returned as guests on Bishop’s latest 2025 album THIMK, along with Graham Nash, Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Christopher Cross, Jimmy Webb and many more.

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Celebrating Frank Beard on his 77th birthday. —Ed.

Billy Gibbons is an open-minded guy. While I was busy hating the English synthpop likes of Depeche Mode and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, the leader of Texas legends ZZ Top was listening to them, and enough light bulbs were going off in his head to illuminate all 1,954 miles of the US-Mexico border.

Anybody who thought Gibbons of the La Grange laugh and Methusaleh beard was some front-porch blues and boogie purist was sadly mistaken—Billy dug the synthesizers, and Billy dug the drum machines, and most of all Billy dug the acceleration—the more beats per minute the better. And they all set him to thinking—if Black Oak Arkansas could bring electricity to Arkansas, why couldn’t ZZ Top bring New Wave to the Lone Star State? And become MTV Gods and make a bazillion dollars in the process?

It didn’t happen all at once, but it all came together on 1983’s Eliminator, easily one of the slickest, glossiest, supercharged, and yes weirdest albums ever to blow across the finish line between your ears, sending tumblin’ tumbleweeds a’ tumblin’ in all directions. An unholy fusion of down home blooz-boogie and the latest in studio technology, it put plenty a purist off his BBQ, but by gum it exploded out of the speakers just like that 1933 Ford Coupe in the band’s star-making videos.

And they kept what counted most; Billy still sounded like the biggest lecher this side of the Rio Grande, and his 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard still had enough Texas hot sauce on it to burn ears from Houston to Honolulu. And each and every rip-snortin’ power chord reminds me of a boast from a previous album; “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Following the announcement of Rhino’s Spirit of ’76 campaign, celebrating the albums that defined America’s Bicentennial, one release stands as a unifying statement of the era: WAR’s Greatest Hits, returning July 31 for its 50th anniversary.

Originally released in 1976, Greatest Hits captured a vision of America that extended far beyond the mainstream narrative, one that was multiracial, genre-defying, and rooted in everyday life. As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, the album’s message of unity and its seamless fusion of funk, soul, rock, jazz, and Latin influences feel as vital as ever.

Featuring landmark tracks like “The World Is A Ghetto,” “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” “Low Rider,” and “Summer”—which was a brand-new song at the time of the original Greatest Hits release—the collection became far more than a compilation.

WAR’s longtime producer Jerry Goldstein reflected on the 1976 release, sharing: “It marked the first time a new song was included on a Greatest Hits album and went on to become a greatest hit itself. We recorded ‘Summer’ while assembling the original compilation, which makes this 50th Anniversary edition the most authentic and complete version of our Greatest Hits.”

The 50th anniversary edition of Greatest Hits will be available on 180-gram black vinyl, with lacquers cut by renowned mastering engineer Kevin Gray, delivering a definitive audiophile pressing for collectors and longtime fans. Also releasing the same day, a worldwide all-retail CD edition further expands the album’s reach, now including their iconic tracks “Spill The Wine,” “Don’t Let No One Get You Down,” “So,” and “Galaxy.”

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Formed in 2010 by Chicago-based pianist and songwriter Johnny Iguana, The Claudettes have been steadily evolving across a string of albums since. Their sixth full-length Garage Glamour is the first with lead vocalist Rachel Williams, who joined the outfit in 2023. With this new edition, the band has further sharpened their blend of blues and soul with punkish intensity and contemporary flair. The album’s out now on vinyl, compact disc, and digital through Pravda Records.

The Claudettes have a direct line to the blues, as Johnny Iguana has played with Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, and Johnny Winter, along with recording a solo album, Chicago Spectacular!, for noted Windy City blues and jazz label Delmark Records in 2020. Johnny Iguana is also a name many might recognize through his work as co-composer of the score to the TV series The Bear, with fellow Chicagoan Jeffrey “JQ” Qaiyum.

Bassist Zach Verdoorn and drummer Michael Caskey complete the current lineup of The Claudettes along with the belter’s pipes and punk stylishness of Williams, whose visage, captured in the midst of a throaty wail, adorns Garage Glamour’s front cover. The photo is mildly reminiscent of Gary Panter’s artwork for the late ’70s Los Angeles punk band Screamers.

The Claudettes aren’t as anarchic as that comparison might suggest. There is a songwriting acumen and a deft musicality that make a strong case for the band’s potential for widespread appeal. In earlier, less restrictive eras, the precise dual-vocal emotionalism of opener “(You Are My) Whole World” would’ve been a prime candidate for frequent radio play on stations catering to adults.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The song’s official title is “Brand New Key,” although it’s just as well known as “the bicycle song,” “the roller-skates song,” and even (thanks to the Wurzels’ 1975 UK chart topper) “The Combine Harvester Song.” Whatever you want to call it, though, “Brand New Key” topped the US chart for a month at the beginning of 1972, and it remains many people’s point of entry to Melanie’s long, spectacular career.

Now, as “Brand New Key” reaches out to an entire new audience via the latest Apple Watch app ad, Cleopatra Records today release a unique version of the song, recorded live at New York City’s fabled DeMille Theatre in late 1971, just as the song commenced its headlong rush up the chart. The venue itself is noteworthy—Broadway had never hosted a straightforward rock or pop concert… but there again, Melanie’s concerts were rarely straightforward. Not with an audience as loyal and vocal.

Performing before a jam-packed crowd, themselves reveling in the unfamiliar surroundings of one of the city’s most legendary halls, Melanie was both launching her latest album, Gather Me, and celebrating her “Brand New Key”’s conquest of the airwaves—although nobody could have predicted just how successful (and career-defining) it would become.

Taken from the forthcoming (release date , July 17) live album First Nights On Broadway, “Brand New Key” opened the show, building out of a brief, but so delightful chorus of the old standard “Give My Regards To Broadway.” And, although the record had barely been in the stores for more than a few days, it was as if every person in the audience knew the song—the roar of applause that greets its opening lyric proves that.

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Supertramp is one of the many groups or artists who started in the late 1960s or early 1970s as artsy, offbeat, or even underground unknowns and, by sometime before the end of the 1970s, became multi-million-selling blockbuster album artists.

The British band released their self-titled debut album in 1970 and quickly followed up the next year with Indelibly Stamped, establishing them as a quirky and uncompromising group that created richly drawn albums of deeply thematic pieces, with indescribable music. Not quite prog, something more than jazzy or folk rock, the group’s music was something entirely new and original.

After a three-year hiatus, they released Crime of the Century, an album that was a massive leap forward, with such FM faves as “Bloody Well Right” and “Dreamer,” and a recording that immediately became an audiophile landmark as the first UHQR Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab release.

Their next album, Crisis? What Crisis? released the following year only further solidified their growing stature in the FM album rock world and set the stage for their massive commercial breakout. Even In The Quietest Moments…, released two years later and now available as one of three new Supertramp reissues, began the group’s ascension to massive breakout success, mostly due to the album’s opening track, the epic sing-song “Give a Little Bit,” which dominated FM radio at the time.

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Remembering Howlin’ Wolf, born on this day in 1910. —Ed.

Before we turn to a serious discussion of Chester Burnett aka Howlin’ Wolf, a true story about another wolf, last name Blitzer. A friend of a friend of his cousin’s friend who lives in Blitzer’s swank neighborhood in Bethesda, MD swears come one full moon night he watched a howling Blitzer lope naked across his backyard, in pursuit of a terrified deer. This friend of a friend of a cousin’s friend assumed it was just an acid flashback, but when he turned on CNN the next day he swears he saw flecks of blood in Wolf’s beard.

As for Howlin’ Wolf, he’s only one of the greatest blues musicians to ever walk Planet Earth. The Wolf could do it all: sing, play guitar and harmonica–hell, I betcha he could have rocked the blues on the hornucopian dronepipe had somebody handed him one. Thousands of people have paid homage to Howlin’ Wolf over the years, but my favorite encomium comes from the late Cub Koda of Brownsville Station, who said, “No one could match Howlin’ Wolf for the singular ability to rock the house down to the foundation while simultaneously scaring its patrons out of its wits.” Howlin’ Wolf and Wolf Blitzer have a lot in common.

There are better Howlin’ Wolf albums out there, but listeners have long been drawn to 1971’s The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions on the basis of its who’s who cast of renowned musicians. Session attendees included Eric Clapton, long-time Howlin’ Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumin, Steve Winwood, sessions pianist extraordinaire Lafayette Leake, Charlie Watts, Ian Stewart, Ringo Starr, Bill Wyman, Klaus Voormann and some other guys whose names elude me at the moment.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Platinum-selling, Mercury Prize-winning, NME God Like Genius-certified giants of British independent music Suede announce Antidepressants: Expanded. The deluxe version of their critically acclaimed tenth album is due for release on July 10th via BMG. Alongside today’s announcement, Suede have released a brand new song titled, “Emotionally Unavailable.”

In addition to “Emotionally Unavailable,” Antidepressants: Expanded also features “Medication,” a pulsating new track previously unheard by UK audiences, as well as rarity tracks: “Dirty Looks,” “Sharpening Knives,” and “Overload.” The album also includes Antidepressants (Demos), 11 recordings of scratch tracks, demo takes and early mixes, giving fans the chance to hear how the rapturously received Antidepressants was made. The album will be released digitally and on 3CD.

“It seems to me that contemporary life has a kind of powder-keg feel,” says Suede frontman Brett Anderson. “A taut atmosphere, like there’s something explosive about to happen, a latent anger, a lurking darkness, a frustration that requires suppression. We are all striving for connection in a disconnected world.”

Antidepressants debuted at #2 in the Official UK Albums Chart and received top tier recognition in critics’ end of year lists, named by The Guardian, MOJO, Uncut Magazine, Record Collector, The Sun and more as an essential album of 2025.

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Remembering Trevor Bolder, born on this day in 1950. —Ed.

Despite what you may have heard or read, Glam Rock didn’t begin with Marc Bolan, David Bowie, or any other early seventies English rocker. It began long, long before that, during the Cretaceous Period, when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Forget those plain and lumbering creatures you see on the Science Channel—those were the workaday dinosaurs. The real creatures, like Glittersaurus Rex and Giganotosaurus Glamii, were fashion queens and totally outrageous.

They knew theirs was a final age of decadence and lived it to the hilt, wearing mascara, eyeliner, feather boas, and fabulous neckpieces like the one Edgar Winter sports on They Only Come Out at Night. And glitter, of course—the terminal age dinosaurs adored glitter. On their faces, on their claws, and even on their thigh-high 8-inch platform boots, which made it impossible for them to run and are the reason they went extinct. Their elegy, if they can be said to have one, was uttered by David Bowie, who said, “If those dinosaurs were the spearhead of anything, it wasn’t necessarily the spearhead of anything good. Any era that allowed dinosaurs like them to become rampant was pretty well lost.”

But we’re not here to talk about dinosaurs, but about one of the greatest albums of all time. And not just Glam albums, but albums period. 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars was a concept album recorded by rock’s premiere changeling—a skirt-wearing longhair oddball ex-mime named David Bowie, who decided that outrage was the name of the game and that the most fabulous route to stardom lay in dressing up like a mincing androgynous intergalactic space fop, come to spread the news of imminent apocalypse and the gospel of hazy cosmic jive.

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