On April 5, Mississippi Records delivers an absolute gem to seekers of prime African heat as they reissue the eponymous 1973 album by Mali’s Rail Band. Spiked with Afro-Cuban richness and relentlessly funky, the record sells for hundreds of dollars in original form when a copy miraculously becomes available. Mississippi’s edition, on black or transparent […]
It’s been four years since Norah Jones has released a studio album and new material (Pick Me Up Off the Floor). There was a holiday album and a live album in 2021. Once again, Jones has come up with an album, Visions, that highlights her gorgeous and singular vocal style and ability to write songs […]
For some, Bruce Cockburn needs no introduction. However, just as many (maybe more) are unfamiliar with the persevering Canadian singer-songwriter’s talents, a reality Tompkins Square’s Josh Rosenthal fully understands. Rather than leave this deficiency unaddressed, James Toth Presents… Imaginational Anthem Vol. XIII – Songs of Bruce Cockburn arrives April 5 on LP, CD, and digital. […]
Remembering Marvin Gaye, born on this day in 1939. —Ed. Since his tragic and premature death in 1984, Marvin Gaye’s discography has steadily risen in critical esteem, and particularly What’s Going On, his eleventh album and the enduring apex of the man’s posthumous ascension, as it’s landed atop at least one noted list of the […]
Brothers Mark and Clive Ives have been making music since the early 1970s as the creative engine of the UK outfit Woo. Having released their debut in 1982, they collaborated with Independent Project Records later in the decade, and now, after a break of over 35 years, that relationship has been rekindled with Xylophonics + […]
Remembering Ronnie Lane, born on this day in 1946. —Ed. Small Faces stand as one of the very finest groups of the 1960s, though many know them mainly for Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake, their most ambitious and final album before Steve Marriott’s departure effectively ended their diminutive phase. The scoop is that all of the […]
Bob Seger was thirty and practically a geriatric (thirty is sixty in rock years!) when 1976’s Night Moves finally took him nationwide, big time. It came as a surprise. Seger seemed destined to spend his career as a journeyman—a big fish (although hardly as hip a fish as The Stooges, the MC5 and Alice Cooper) […]
Celebrating Jim “Dandy” Mangrum in advance of his 76th birthday tomorrow. —Ed. Black Oak Arkansas may well be—and I say this with affection, and as a fan—the most stunningly inept band in the history of rock. The Village Voice’s Robert Christgau once rhetorically asked why Black Oak—despite relentless touring and a big name tour manager—still […]
It’s safe to say that 1972’s glam-infused Transformer will always be ex-Velvet Undergounder and Andy Warhol acolyte Lou Reed’s signature album, his biggest crowd pleaser and the one he’ll best be remembered for. It was certainly the album that finally transformed him (see “album title as self-fulfilling prophecy”) from cult figure amongst the decadent NYC […]
Celebrating Lady Gaga, born on this day in 1986. —Ed. I’ll be the first to admit I sold Lady Gaga short when she detonated like a hyper-sexualized glitter bomb on the pop scene with her 2008 debut LP The Fame. Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta sounded like a brazen Madonna copycat to me, and if there’s […]
Hey Panda, the new release from the enduring English outfit the High Llamas, is an immersion and distension of contemporary pop music from a man, one Sean O’Hagan, long known for reinvigorating sounds from the past. But with strong songwriting and a respectful approach at its core, the endeavor succeeds with flying colors. The earned […]
There are certain jazz albums that transcend the genre and become timeless classics. Eastern Sounds by Yusef Lateef is one of those albums. It is a stirring, meditative musical excursion of sound, that could be considered a precursor of world music, or even a more nuanced, textured, and varied early new age recording, without the […]
Today, bassist-cellist-composer-bandleader Ron Carter is described without overstatement as a jazz ambassador, but flash back to the early 1960s and he was but one of many skilled young players on the scene. As talent attracts talent, Carter’s debut album Where? is as notable for its sidemen as it is for spotlighting an artist destined for […]
Celebrating Steven Tyler on his 76th birthday. —Ed. Back in the day I went back on forth on Boston Very Baked Beans like a yoyo–liked ‘em in high school, loathed ‘em in college, then did what any sane person would do and put ‘em out of mind altogether. “Dude (Looks Like a Lady)” didn’t exactly […]
The UK-based dub behemoth Creation Rebel returned last year with Hostile Environment, an album as pleasurable to the ear as it was an unexpected development. Smartly sustaining the positive energy, the On-U Sound label is releasing High Above Harlesden 1978–2023 as a 6CD boxset and digital download, plus corresponding vinyl reissues of the group’s debut […]
