VIA PRESS RELEASE | Get ready for an endless summer of fun, fun, fun with The Beach Boys, the all-new documentary streaming exclusively on Disney+ beginning May 24, 2024.

The Beach Boys is a celebration of the legendary band that revolutionized pop music, and the iconic, harmonious sound they created that personified the California dream, captivating fans for generations and generations to come. The documentary traces the band from humble family beginnings and features never-before-seen footage and all-new interviews with The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, David Marks, Bruce Johnston, plus other luminaries in the music business, including Lindsey Buckingham, Janelle Monáe, Ryan Tedder, and Don Was. Viewers will also hear from the group’s Carl and Dennis Wilson in their own words, plus view a new interview with Blondie Chaplin and hear audio from Ricky Fataar.

A Kennedy/Marshall and White Horse Pictures Production, The Beach Boys is directed by Frank Marshall and Thom Zimny and written by Mark Monroe. The film is produced by Frank Marshall, Irving Azoff, Nicholas Ferrall, Jeanne Elfant Festa, Aly Parker, with Nigel Sinclair, Mark Monroe, Tony Rosenthal, Cassidy Hartmann, Glen Zipper, Thom Zimny, Beth Collins, Jimmy Edwards, Susan Genco, Marc Cimino, Jody Gerson, Bruce Resnikoff, and Ben J. Murphy serving as executive producers. “I’m super happy with the way the documentary turned out, they did an amazing job,” says Brian Wilson. “It really brought me back to those days with the boys, the fun and the music. And of course those incredible harmonies.”

The official soundtrack, The Beach Boys: Music From The Documentary, will be available to stream and download on May 24 via Capitol/UMe, and the group’s iconic 1964 album Shut Down, Vol. 2 is now available on limited edition blue and white marble vinyl. Additionally, the group’s only official book, The Beach Boys by The Beach Boys, was released on April 2 via Genesis Publications.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Minneapolis hip-hop pioneers Atmosphere have announced a reissue of their 2007 mixtape Strictly Leakage, available May 17th via Rhymesayers Entertainment.

Early on, Strictly Leakage had been pressed on a limited run of vinyl and CD, but it wasn’t long before they sold out, and fans were left chasing bootlegs and digital files in order to hear the project. Finally, the project returns to double-vinyl LP and CD, made available for retail distribution for the first time. Additionally, an exclusive pressing of blue & green colored vinyl LP’s and limited cassettes are available for pre-order directly from the artists at atmospheresucks.com and rhymesayers.com.

Often recognized as one of the most consistent and prolific duos in independent hip-hop, Atmosphere hit a stride of extraordinary output from July 2007 to April 2008, even by their own standards. Within those 9 months, they released a full-length album, four EP’s, and a 42-minute mixtape of exclusive material, altogether totaling 48 new songs released, all while they were consistently touring as well.

This rapid-fire string of releases introduced some of their most popular songs to date and showcased their dynamic range, from moody and reflective, to upbeat and optimistic, to a boom-bap throwback style of rap, the latter of which was most prominently displayed on the mixtape. Introduced on Christmas Day 2007, the mixtape was a “gift” to fans in the form of a free download, aptly titled Strictly Leakage—a nod to both eschewing standardized industry practices in favor of giving the music away, and to another prominent hip-hop album title from the era that inspired them and perhaps more specifically, these recordings.

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Remembering Carl Perkins, born on this date in 1932. —Ed.

Carl Perkins was one of the major shakers in the peak period of Sun Records, and these days he gets his due mostly as an architect of classic rockabilly. In that regard, one of his many hits compilations will provide an accurate if not comprehensive analysis. To get a taste of the full-blown ‘50s Perkins experience however, one will need to dig a little deeper, and seeking out the 1988 LP Honky Tonk Gal is an excellent choice.

Many outstanding recordings were made in the USA in the decade immediately following the Second World War, but at the top of the heap are a few truly indispensable documents. Amongst them can be found Charlie Parker’s master takes for Dial and Savoy, the high lonesome sound of Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys as captured by Columbia and Decca, Muddy Waters’ electrification of the Delta in Chess Studios, and perhaps inappropriately since it compiled 6 LPs worth of material from prewar 78s, the Anthology of American Folk Music as issued by Folkways.

But if an outlier, I’ll stump passionately for that Harry Smith-compiled doozy. On top of being one of the few multi-disc sets that can be listened to in its entirety without a hint of exhaustion, it just as importantly established a disparate songbook that’s continued to influence music right up to this very minute. And the icing on the cake is how the inspired assemblage of a bohemian painter (and record collector!) integrated American folksong two years before the Supreme Court handed down their unanimous blow to the ugliness of segregation with the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

And that relates pretty well to Samuel Cornelius Phillips and his Memphis Recording Service, later known more famously as Sun Records, a small business concern that was really on a creative mission in loose disguise. It was also the cradle of some extremely essential postwar music. For instance, Jackie Brenston’s “Rocket 88,” considered by some to be the first rock ‘n’ roll song. Or that behemoth of the blues The Howlin’ Wolf, who delivered his first sides there. And by the mid-‘50s it was where a bunch of poor white cats, to borrow a phrase from the mouth of Presley, got real real gone for a change.

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California-based tenor saxophonist Harold Land had a long and versatile recording career both as a sideman and as a leader. Of the latter albums, The Fox, first released in 1960, is widely considered to be his best; it sees reissue on 180 gram vinyl April 12 as part of Craft Recordings’ ongoing Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series. It is an album defined by sturdy ensemble play, inspired soloing, and a multifaceted backstory. We delve into it all below.

On The Fox, Harold Land and his assembled crew tear into the opening title track with such energy that it sounds like the year is not 1959 (this set, an early producer credit for David Axelrod, was recorded in August of that year) but 1949, infused as it is with uncut “get the no-talent scrubs off the bandstand” bebop verve.

1949 was the year Land debuted as a leader on record, cutting “San Diego Bounce” b/w “I’ll Remember April” by the Harold Land All-Stars, a 78rpm disc issued by the Savoy subsidiary Regent. That record’s vintage means Land was firsthand witness to the angular intensity of the original bebop era, though “San Diego Bounce” isn’t bop but a potent strain of instrumental R&B.

Land’s rise in stature included a lengthy stint performing and recording with the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet, a key group in the refinement of hard bop in the mid-1950s. Following the end of that band due to trumpeter Brown’s untimely death in a car accident, Land joined the outfit of bassist Curtis Counce, a move that first brought him into the sphere of Contemporary Records, where Counce recorded and Land cut his debut LP, Harold in the Land of Jazz in 1958.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Due to demand, influential alternative rock band Garbage is making their 4th studio album, Bleed Like Me, available on vinyl for the first time since it was originally released in 2005. Bleed Like Me is out now via UMe.

Fully remastered for 2024, this expanded reissue of 2005’s Bleed Like Me includes 2CD, 1LP white vinyl, deluxe 2LP red vinyl, and HD digital formats and features b-sides, rare tracks, remixes, and alternate versions of tracks.

Speaking about the new Bleed Like Me expanded reissue, Shirley Manson says: “This album was tricky to make and resulted in the band taking a 5-year hiatus shortly after it was released. However, over the years, it has become a mainstay of our discography, so we decided to finally make it available on vinyl due to the many pained pleas from our fans.”

Bleed Like Me was a top 5 album chart hit in the UK, US, Australia, and the European Billboard chart upon its initial release in April 2005. The album featured four singles, “Why Do You Love Me,” which was a top 10 single in the UK, “Bleed Like Me” and “Sex Is Not The Enemy,” which both went on to be regulars in the band’s live shows and “Run Baby Run,” which was accompanied by a Sophie Muller directed music video.

Garbage are playing a number of festival shows this year, including European and UK dates at Mad Cool in Madrid (July 10 – 13) and TRNSMT in Glasgow (July 12-14). The band’s new Bleed Like Me expanded reissue is out now.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | In the great pantheon of musicians transcending above mere “celebrity” status, the late Michael Hutchence towers over most. A consummate “rock star” if there ever was one, he embodied the spirit and smoldering swagger of rock ‘n’ roll while possessing one of the most iconic voices in the contemporary music scene.

So, it was with an earth-rattling shudder when tragically he passed away in 1997, leaving a mind-numbingly impressive legacy across the entertainment realm. What many didn’t know, however, is that he left some of his brilliance behind in the form of unreleased music. Producer, musician and personal friend Danny Saber (Madonna, Rolling Stones, U2) has taken some of these musical pieces and completed them to continue and extend Hutchence’s impact. The new single “One Way” is available now via Boss Sonics.

“’One Way’ is the culmination of nearly two decades of work,” says Saber. “One of the fundamental reasons for releasing this music is to allow the fans to hear Michael’s voice on something new and fresh, offering a glimpse into what might have been, and, in turn, reawakening millions of people who may have simply forgotten about him.”

“Michael first contacted me in 1995 soon after the release of my album It’s Great When You’re Straight,” recalls Saber, referring to the UK #1 album by his band Black Grape with Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder. “Michael was a huge fan of my record and wanted to find the right sound for a solo record, a sound that would galvanize all the success he had with INXS and allow him to establish himself as a solo artist and spread his creative wings outside the confines of being the frontman of one of the most successful bands in the world.”

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Celebrating Justin Sullivan, born on this day in 1956. —Ed.

You’ve got to love New Model Army. They were once introduced on Brit TV program The Tube as “the ugliest band in rock and roll,” their lead singer went by the name Slade the Leveller for years to avoid losing his unemployment benefits, and the United States refused them entry to the country on the grounds that their music was “of no artistic merit.” I love that last part. Oh, and the angry young leftists of New Model Army—they snatched their name from Thomas Fairfax’s English Revolution militia of the mid-1600s—were forced to abandon playing the song “Vengeance” on The Tube, due to its friendly lines, “I believe in justice/I believe in vengeance/I believe in getting the bastards.”

The band has switched genres the way some people switch their bedroom lights on and off, but one thing has remained the same—New Model Army are angry punters with a knack for controversy, as is demonstrated by the fact that 1993’s Love of Hopeless Causes came complete with directions on how to construct a nuclear device. 1991’s Thunder and Consolation is considered their high point—even Justin Sullivan, aka Slade the Leveller, has modestly called it “brilliant”—although I consider 1990’s The Ghost of Cain excellent as well, what with its great songs “The 51st State” and “Poison Street.”

I generally believe that rock and politics make unfortunate bedfellows, but I like New Model Army because as the album title Love of Hopeless Causes indicates, they know that in life there are winners and losers, and they understand what class they belong to. Which is not to say they’re taking their loser status lying down; they’re not. But unlike those wankers in the Clash, who were either totally naïve or incredibly cynical, New Model Army seem to have no illusions that their music can change the world.

Instead they rage on in the face of futility, knowing it’s a sucker’s game. And they’re not falling for any of that “the meek shall inherit the earth” bullshit either, as they sing in folk/post-punk “The Ballad of Bodmin Pill”: “How we all dance with this fire ’cause it’s all that we know/And as the spotlight turns toward us, we all try our best to show/We are lost we are freaks, we are crippled, we are weak/We are the heirs, we are the true heirs, to all the world.” Sullivan is not implying that their inheritance will be one of plenty; No, theirs will always be an inheritance of suffering, and injustice, and powerlessness in the face of the haves, who have always ruled the world and always will.

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Journey weren’t always the greatest rock ’n’ roll band in the world. Before they rocked the earth on its axis with such absolutely essential MOR smasheroos as “Wheel in the Sky,” “Lights” (an even greater salute to San Francisco than Starship’s “We Built This City”!), “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and “Hustler” (okay, so that one’s not so great) the MOR giants from Rice-a-Roni City were that best of all possible things, a progressive rock/jazz fusion band. Right up there with such titans as Kansas, Return to Forever, and Spock’s Beard even!

Surprised? I sure am! Why, it’s like finding out the Sex Pistols began their career with a triple album (played solely on Moog synthesizers and tubular bells) called Moonbeams Refracted by the Gleaming Enamel of Parachuting Molars released under the name of Odysseus’ Merkin! Or that the New Dolls started as a jazz fusion band called, I don’t know, Bent Oxygen! But if it’s news it’s wonderful news, because as everybody knows Journey can do no wrong, even if the Journey that put out their 1975 debut Journey had yet to include the super-dynamic Steve Perry, whose magic flying tonsils wouldn’t arrive on the scene until October 10, 1977, a day that will live infamy!

Later guitarist extra ordinaire Neal Schon would say, “I still think some of the stuff we did then was great. Some of it was self-indulgent, just jamming for ourselves, but I also think a lot of other things hurt us in the early days. It took a while for the politics to sort of shape up.” Self-indulgent? Why, I’ve never heard that one used in conjunction with progressive rock before! And politics? Does Journey have its own form of government? A constitutional monarchy with a bicameral legislature perhaps? But I digress.

You’re probably not familiar with Journey’s debut unless you’re a hardcore Journey fan (smartest rock fans in the world) or just plain unlucky, as it seems I am. But please allow me to extract tongue from cheek and turn to an honest discussion of the songs on Journey. And the good news—relatively speaking—is that while I’m no fan of either progressive rock or jazz fusion, Journey approach them from a hard rock angle.

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BOSTON, MA | Illustrious singer and lyricist Maynard James Keenan celebrated his 60th birthday in the most rock ‘n’ roll way possible—a nationwide tour showcasing two of his bands and a legacy act. The Sessanta tour, which features Primus, Puscifer, and A Perfect Circle kicked off its nationwide tour to a sold-out Boch Center on the first of a two-night residency on Tuesday, April 2. This tour has Keenan moving into center stage where he shines brightly in the spotlight surrounded by fans and friends alike.

There was no opener as all three bands alternated by sharing the stage with sets typically lasting three songs. Musicians from all three bands join each other’s set, a performance unique to this tour. This was exemplified with Keenan joining Primus during a rousing rendition of “Tommy the Cat.” Each of these bands invoke different feelings for listeners with their distinctive sound, but this wide range of musical styles blended together with the design of a well-crafted setlist full of intense and reflective moments. Each band seemed to feed off the previous performance in friendly competition, bringing their best effort into what talent they displayed.

The stage was flanked on either side with stairs that led to party areas with couches and tables with cupcakes, party favors, and alcohol. The middle of that platform had multiple drum kits for Josh Freese (APC), Tim Alexander (Primus), and Gunnar Olsen (Puscifer) who all brought their unique style of play to their set. An impressive lighting display accentuated the music with a background panel of lights behind the bands, string lights above, and spotlights below. Strobe lights and dense fog amplified the current moods of each song. The stage had less free range to roam but felt like a party that everyone was excited to be at.

Primus founder Les Claypool greeted the crowd stating the reason we are here tonight is, “To celebrate Maynard turning sixty years-old, which is not an easy feat.” These performances certainly felt like a celebration. Members were joyfully playing outside their typical role and embracing the special format of this tour. The uniqueness of this concert allowed these musicians to be seen in a different light, one where they had loosened up, and were having fun, but still professionally executing at a high level.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Sponge frontman Vin Dombroski has teamed up with esteemed drummer Jason Hartless and his record label, Sound City Music Group, to deliver an unprecedented release for this year’s Record Store Day, happening on April 20th. The highly anticipated release will be pressed on limited clear red vinyl and promises fans an extraordinary musical experience and will only be limited to 1,200 units worldwide.

Titled Planet Girls, this album serves as the long-lost version of Sponge’s 1999 release, New Pop Sunday. Following the success of their back-to-back gold albums, Rotting Piñata and Wax Ecstatic, Sponge underwent a label change during the recording of their third release. Legendary producer Kevin Shirley (known for his work with Journey, Aerosmith, The Black Crowes) was brought in to create a more pop-rock-oriented album, a departure from the grittier sound of their first two albums. However, the album was eventually shelved and never released—until now.

After a series of private listening parties to showcase the record and packaging, music insiders are buzzing with excitement over what Dombroski has unearthed out of his private collection both sonically and visually. This release is a testament to the creativity of artists like Vin. “The collaboration between the two Detroit natives has resulted in a truly remarkable piece to be added to Sponge’s musical history.”

Planet Girls will be available exclusively on clear red vinyl for Record Store Day, offering fans a unique opportunity to own a piece of Sponge’s legacy.