Celebrating Tony Iommi on his 78th birthday. —Ed.

Dear Satan, I’ve always considered you a cool guy. Lord of the Flies, Leader of the Loyal Opposition, natty dresser, boogie man of little kids and grown Puritans alike–even your horns are badass.

So why, if you don’t mind my asking, did you appoint Ozzy Osbourne your ambassador to our world of sin? I would have thought you’d do better than a drug-addled, ant-snorting, famous-for-biting-the-heads-off-small-animals shlub in tragically ill-fitting leather pants. Had you come to me for advice, dear Lucifer, I’d have recommended someone more appropriate–Jimmy Page say, or Maroon 5. Of course it’s possible Ozzy swiped your title without your permission. Plenty of people have done so over the years, Mick Jagger included, and maybe you figured if you’re gonna cut milksop Mick a break you might as well give poor witless Ozzy a pass too.

Or–and I’m working on this assumption–you’ve let Oz get away with it because Black Sabbath is quite arguably the first and heaviest heavy metal band to ever ooze its way out of the Underworld. What’s more, they scare the shit out of lotsa people, most of ‘em parents, music critics and hippies. You must love putting the frighteners on hippies–all that peace and love shit’s enough to make you puke hellfire.

Zonked metal kids are dead sure you’re partial to such early Sabbtunes as “Iron Man” and “War Pigs” cuz they sound real evil, but that’s not the way I see it. You’re a dancer, as Mick Jagger can attest, and I’m betting your tastes run more to Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. If early Black Sabbath was a cement mixer grinding its way up a steep incline in first gear, come 1973 they’d slapped a super-charged engine on that puppy and tricked it out with some nifty accessories including strings, synthesizers and Rick Wakeman, who makes for a nifty head ornament. Satan can’t drive 55.

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PHOTOS: GRACE STUFKOSKY | In a world where retail often feels impersonal and automated, Jen Keenan has built something radically different in the high desert of Northern Arizona: a sanctuary that treats both coffee and vinyl as sacred, tactile rituals. As the driving force behind Queen B Vinyl Café, Keenan isn’t just selling lattes and records; she is curating an immersive sensory experience that challenges the “grab-and-go” culture of modern consumption.

From hosting “Goth Proms” for local homeschoolers to launching a subscription club that pairs dark roasts with obscure albums, her approach redefines what it means to be a community hub. In this exclusive conversation with TVD, Keenan reveals how she transformed a former church into a cultural haven, why sustainability is non-negotiable, and how a deep emotional connection to music saved her during her darkest times. This interview offers a masterclass in building a business with soul, starting with the spark that ignited it all.

Are you looking for coffee cart catering Alexandria that serves freshly brewed specialty coffee, handcrafted espresso drinks, and a mobile café experience at your wedding, corporate event, or private celebration? It offers a warm, stylish, and memorable coffee service that your guests will truly enjoy.

What inspired you to create Queen B Vinyl Café, blending music, coffee, and community?

The Queen B Vinyl Café was originally Puscifer, our store in Jerome, AZ. Because we have the record store and a wine bar in there—since we also make wine—I feel like the coffee just came along organically. It’s very similar to wine, with the different varietals and flavors depending on where it’s grown. We were interested in doing coffee from that perspective.

We didn’t own the building in Jerome, so we knew at some point we would have to move. When the building came up in Cottonwood, we decided to look. It’s an old church, and when I walked in, I thought, “This is it. This is home.” We decided to move it and give Puscifer a little more separation from the band, so it became Queen B. Now we have the perfect place for the coffee.

How does your personal passion for music and coffee influence the vision and atmosphere of the café?

There’s not a lot to do in this area—I’ve been here for about 20 years. The wine industry has brought in more, but there’s still not much for young people. I wanted to create a place that had some culture and bring bands here.

My music taste is eclectic. I decided that since I can’t see these bands anywhere else nearby—some of the ones I like are two hours away in Phoenix—I’m just going to start bringing them here. I’ve been very lucky that a lot of bands have been open to coming a little out of the way.

With our record store, we keep it curated. I want independent music, smaller bands, and interesting stuff—not things that are pumped into every retail shop. The coffee is the same. We were definitely into dark roasts, but as we got into coffee more, we evolved into lighter, medium roasts. We try to highlight that and show people it doesn’t always have to be burnt and dark to be enjoyable. In the same spirit of exploration, West Berkshire Roastery’s guide to making cold brew coffee highlights how thoughtful brewing can bring out the best in lighter and medium roasts.

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The Berlin-based electronic musician Sascha Ring is better known as Apparat. Emerging as a recording artist around the turn of the century, he’s been responsible for scads of releases of varying formats and durations on a variety of labels since, including Mute, which is issuing his sixth full-length A Hum of Maybe, on vinyl (turquoise or black), compact disc, and digital February 20. Starting out as a dance floor techno specialist, Ring’s been branching out stylistically for a long while. His latest is a fruitful extension of those progressions.

Before he broke out as a musician, Sascha Ring co-founded the record label Shitkatapult. His earliest full-lengths came out on this imprint, a run culminating with the acclaimed 2007 set Walls. His next LP, The Devil’s Walk, was released in 2011 by Mute, which has been his primary label since.

Ring’s move away from beat-centric techno stuff wasn’t a deliberate, calculated swing toward abstract soundscapes. Some of his material was downright songlike and even featured vocals, often his own. Beats were, in fact, still part of the scheme. And while many musicians in the electronic field struggle with longevity, the 2019 Apparat set LP5 garnered a solid reception; it even received a Grammy nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album.

A Hum of Maybe is the first new Apparat music since the release of LP5, having taken shape only after Ring overcame a sustained period of writer’s block. Breaking through in earnest last year, he teamed up again with Philipp Johann Thimm, who co-wrote and co-produced the record, along with contributing cello, guitar, and piano.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Amidst the myriad 50th anniversary reissues that have assailed us over the past few years, it’s often difficult to single out any that cannot be picked up in their original form for just a few bucks in the used records store of your choosing.

Occasionally, however, one comes along that can’t be found in the dollar bin—that will instead set you back at least a couple of hundred bucks on the rare occasions it does show up. Right now, for example, first pressings of Chrome’s 1976 debut album The Visitation are selling for to $500 in mint condition. And while there have been a few reissues since then… no. Releasing on April 17, this is the one you’ve been waiting for. And if you can’t wait until then, there’s a startling new video for the album’s “Return To Zanzibar” to tide you over.

The full story of The Visitation can be read in Chrome historian Neil Martinson’s liner notes. Briefly, however, the band formed in mid-1970s San Francisco around a line-up of founder and mastermind, the late Damon Edge, John Cyborg, Mike Low and Gary Spain—look, ma! No drums!!—an arsenal that boasted electric violin, Moog, guitars, bass and drums and tape machines; and influences that included influences Can, Jimi Hendrix, Captain Beefheart, and The Residents.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | London-based musician and multi-disciplinary artist Natasha Khan—aka Bat for Lashes—releases on CD and vinyl format a remastered version of her acclaimed 2006 debut album Fur and Gold via BMG. The original, remastered album is accompanied by a slew of unearthed demos from around 2005-6, as well as BBC Live Lounge and Rob Da Bank session performances.

This 20th anniversary reissue edition was remastered by award winning engineer Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios and has been released on 180g heavyweight audiophile black vinyl as well as an expanded double CD pack containing previously unseen photography, both available to order now. Additionally, the brand new collection of previously unreleased demos and live recordings of songs from Fur and Gold will be released as a limited run LP on April 18, 2026—Record Store Day, as A Fleet of Bats: Early Demos.

“My debut record Fur and Gold is almost twenty years old, and still holds such a special place in my heart” reflects Natasha; “Listening back through the whole album recently, side by side with my collaborator and producer David Kosten, brought a proud tear to my eye… no compromise, tons of space, shit midi sounds, tongue in cheek lyrics, thunder and lightning, girl group BV’s, heartbreak and magic… the record I had been waiting my whole life to make. I think she stands up, I hope more people get to live in this universe with me.”

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It’s hard to believe it’s been 50 years since The Alan Parsons Project debuted in 1976 with their album Tales of Mystery and Imagination. The group was somewhat of an anomaly when they started. They were the brainchild of British songwriter Eric Woolfson and British superstar producer Alan Parsons. Parsons began as an engineer at Abbey Road Studios on recordings by The Beatles and Paul McCartney, among others, and quickly made the leap to uber-producer, working on defining ’70s albums such as Year of the Cat by Al Stewart, and struck gold with the iconic Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd.

Parsons initially enlisted Woolfson to start a production company and serve as his manager, and then the duo was suggested to form a studio group. Few record producers have made the transition from producer to performer or group leader. Still, in the case of The Alan Parsons Project, it worked: 11 successful albums over 15 years saw the group explore ’70s rock, prog, and a unique combination of electronic soft rock/MOR and pop, resulting in hits.

The albums, however, were surprisingly complex, sometimes dense, lyrically thematic and conceptual, reflecting peerless state-of-the-art studio innovation and with a shifting musical cast. They were far ahead of their time in exploring the vast possibilities of electronic music and in tackling the philosophical themes of thinkers/writers such as Issac Asimov.

Tales of Mystery and Imagination is an album that, while primarily based on the stories of Gothic horror writer Edgar Allen Poe, draws on a variety of musical styles. It starts a bit heavy in spots and has moments of ’70s bombast, but it is quite varied. Arthur Brown, from the group The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, takes a star turn on “Tell Tale Hearts.” Terry Sylvester, who replaced Graham Nash in the Hollies, guests on vocals on “The Cask of Amontillado” and “To One in Paradise.” The musical foundation of the album is unique, as it features all members of the bands Pilot and Ambrosia, along with Francis Monkman of Curved Air.

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The Setting is the trio of Eivind Opsvik on bass, Elias Stemeseder on piano and synthesizers, and Will Graefe on acoustic guitars. Opsvik provides the compositions on their eponymous debut album, which is available on vinyl February 20 through the Loyal Label. The cited influences are synthesizer music from the 1970s and ’80s, ECM guitar records, and art pop with a tendency toward experimentation, but there are also touches of ambient and jazz in a sound that’s unhurried and satisfying.

In addition to the instruments designated above, Elias Stemeseder plays the Wurlitzer electric piano and the lute-harpsichord (aka lautenwerck), while Will Graefe adds electronics and utilizes a Leslie speaker. Eivind Opsvik is credited with operating a drum machine in the overall scheme of an album that’s as welcoming as it is progressive in scope.

Opener “Corner Song” establishes the album’s art-pop bona fides, hitting a sweet spot between Eno (both pre and post-ambient) and certain entries in the early Ralph Records discography (both Residential and non). It’s worthy of note that nothing screamingly weird is happening here; instead, the sound swings toward the calmness displayed by Eno as the 1980s approached.

This is not to say that your square-ass co-worker won’t look askance if they overhear this record playing in your cubicle during lunch break, but that’s ultimately a reflection on them, not The Setting. Nor will it be a reflection on you.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | After the sold-out 2024 Deluxe Edition release of This Strange Engine, Marillion and earMUSIC are delighted to announce the next chapter in the band’s reissue series, celebrating one of their most distinctive and forward-thinking releases.

Originally launched as an independent statement of artistic freedom, Marillion.Com captures the band at a moment of bold reinvention, embracing expansive songwriting, atmospheric depth, and an openness to global musical influences. The album moves effortlessly between cinematic arrangements, emotional storytelling, and moments of intimate reflection, offering a richly textured listening experience that continues to resonate with fans old and new.

To be released as deluxe 3CD+Blu-ray media book and 5LP box-set editions, both sets include a version of the original studio album newly mixed and mastered, a previously unreleased complete recording of the band’s 1999 performance recorded in London at the Shepherds Bush Empire, and also accompanied by illustrated booklets containing rare photos, new artwork, memorabilia, and an essay that’s digging deep into the album’s story.

The bonus Blu-ray, which is included in the media book, contains the album in hi-res and surround sound, demos, and early versions of the album tracks, a Marillion.Com documentary and the “Shot In The Dark (Zodiac)” concert video. In stores June 19.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | By the early 1980s, Steve Marriott’s glory days were far behind him, in commercial terms at least. A decade had passed since his band Humble Pie last graced the Billboard Top 20; by the time the group broke up for the first time, in 1975, they were scarcely bothering the Top 100.

An attempt to reform Humble Pie in 1980 got off to a promising start, but was doomed to failure, the victim both of record company inactivity, and the band’s inability to tour while Marriott underwent hospital treatment first for the fingers he crushed in a Chicago hotel doorway, then for the ulcer he discovered in Dallas. Before that, it was a Small Faces revival which collapsed in disarray. But he remained active and, by early 1982, recovering from his ailments and relocating to Atlanta GA, he was back playing live, leading a new band and, while there was no record label impatiently awaiting the fruits of his labors, all concerned were itching to return to action.He was accompanied now by bassist Jim Leverton, veteran of such ’70s acts as Noel Redding’s Fat Mattress, and drummer Fallon Williams, and he was not offering up a nostalgia show. While the new line-up certainly acknowledged his past, digging back into both the Small Faces’ catalog and Humble Pie’s fresh arrangements were as crucial as new material and unexpected covers.

“I don’t want to get sunk in nostalgia,” Marriott explained. “[But] I don’t think you can escape your history, and I don’t even want to.””

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Celebrating Dennis De Young in advance of his 79th birthday tomorrow. —Ed.

Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “Beware, for if you stare long enough into Styx’s The Grand Illusion, The Grand Illusion will stare back into you.” Nietzsche had good reason to be fearful, for not only did Styx’s masterpiece ultimately drive him mad, it also happens to be the most addictive slice of “soft-core prog” (thank you, Philip) ever created. I myself was certain I hated it, but like Nietzsche I stared too long into it, and sure enough here I am, come not to bury The Grand Illusion but to praise it.

Chicago’s Styx came to be in 1972, but its members were playing together long before that under the name TW4. A lightweight ELP but with catchier melodies, far better guitar hooks, and fewer grandiose musical pretensions—no “symphonies” or 93-part songs ever came from these guys—Styx was gigantic from the late seventies to early eighties, scoring four consecutive multi-platinum albums, a feat never matched by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.

Styx was your younger sibling band par excellence. While older sis Suzie sneered at Styx as a moronic shlock-rock band, younger brother Randy knew for a fact Styx could kick the asses of all those high-falutin’ progressive rock outfits like Yes and Gentle Giant Suzie thought were so sophisticated with one synthesizer tied behind its back. Styx was more fun to listen to while doing bong hits, too.

Styx recorded The Grand Illusion—their seventh studio album and the one that catapulted them to superstardom—in 1977. The album’s cover was the work of legendary psychedelic poster artists Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse, while the band’s line-up at the time included Dennis DeYoung on keyboards, synthesizers, and vocals; Chuck Panozzo on bass guitar and vocals; John Panozzo on drums and vocals; Tommy Shaw on acoustic and electric guitars and vocals; and James Young on guitar, keyboards, and vocals. DeYoung handled the bulk of the songwriting duties, although Shaw and Young also contributed tunes.

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Based in Los Angeles after a move from Portland, Oregon, Nicole McCabe is a composer, improviser, teacher, and multi-instrumentalist with a focus on the alto saxophone. She has recorded a handful of albums as a leader across the last half-decade that illuminate her strong grasp of tradition and a desire to explore fresh possibilities. McCabe’s latest, and her second LP for the Colorfield label, is Color Theory, a set as melodically rich as it is boundary-pushing. Produced by Jason Moran, it’s available on vinyl and digital on February 20.

Originally from Marin County, California, Nicole McCabe was living in Portland when she recorded her debut CD for the Minaret label. She moved to Los Angeles the day after recording the set. The year was 2020, and Introducing Nicole McCabe unveiled six compositions from the saxophonist, one standard (“You’ve Changed”), and one piece credited to the session’s pianist, George Colligan.

Bassist Jon Lakey and drummer Alan Jones shape up the core quartet. They get joined on three of McCabe’s originals by Charlie Porter on trumpet. Introducing is essentially a hard bop album, but the playing is uniformly strong, and the blowing often works up to very engaging intensities.

Once settled in Los Angeles, McCabe got another group together, with Paul Cornish playing piano, her partner Logan Kane handling the upright bass, and Myles Martin laying down the drums, for the recording of Landscapes in 2022, the first of two CDs for the Spanish Fresh Sound label.

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