VIA PRESS RELEASE | On October 24, 1995, The Smashing Pumpkins released what would become one of the most iconic works of the decade: the sprawling double album Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. Now, thirty years later, the band is returning with a special deluxe reissue expanding on the original album, including eighty minutes of previously unreleased recordings from the 1996 tour in support of the album.

On November 21, three new versions of Mellon Collie will be available via UMe. The album and live material will hit DSPs, and all audio will be available in both a four-disc deluxe edition CD and a 4CD SHM-CD package, featuring new liner notes written by Billy Corgan. The band has also put together a limited-edition vinyl box set essential for the diehard fans, including Mellon Collie and the 1996 Infinite Sadness tour audio on six LPs, the new liner notes in a hardbound book, a custom tarot card deck, and seven frameable lithographs, all housed in a velvet slipcase with a cloth carrying bag.

Included in all versions, the 1996 live material is a holy grail for longtime Pumpkins devotees. Only recently discovered, the recordings showcase the original lineup at the height of their powers. Pre-save the album and listen to the newly discovered live track, “Geek U.S.A.” From The Infinite Sadness Tour ’96, HERE.

“Unearthing these live recordings from the original lineup’s true, last large-scale tour was a labour of love, and for me certainly a bittersweet as once we blew apart in 1996, we were never quite the same: be it emotionally, or spiritually,” says Corgan “Thankfully, I can say this as the band is now enjoying our greatest public success since that time, and one can hear in these tapes the raw power that such nascent faith afforded us, then, and the will and wisdom to persevere that followed.”

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From the “Idea That Was Pure Dumb Genius But Didn’t Sell Because It Was More Pure Dumb Than Pure Genius but in the End Isn’t Half Bad” Files, I give you The Beach Boys’ positively perverse 1968 LP Stack-o-Tracks.

Because The Beach Boys aren’t on it! Brian isn’t in his room on “In My Room”! The room is empty!

Here’s the pitch for Stack-o-Tracks. Have you ever wished Brian, Carl, Dennis, Al, Mike, and Bruce had just shut their traps and let YOU do the singing? And put down their instruments and let YOU do the playing? If so, Stack-o-Tracks is your man. Because what Stack-o-Tracks gives you are the backing tracks of fifteen Beach Boys songs, along with a booklet with the bass lines, lead lines, chords, and lyrics. Talk about your concept albums with an actual purpose. Stack-o-Tracks makes YOU the star! It’s your chance to shine, to leave Brian, Carl, Dennis, Al, Mike, and Bruce in the dim shadow of your radiant genius!

It’s as if Lou Reed had included guitar lines and lyrics for Metal Machine Music! But Lou was never that smart.

It’s right there on the album cover: “You sing the words and play with the original instrumental backgrounds to 15 of their biggest hits.” A few things should be said here. First, the LP was released in Duophonic, the pleather to the leather of true stereo. And despite its manifest unpopularity—it’s one of only two Beach Boys records that failed to reach the pop charts—Capitol Records saw fit to re-release it on CD, twice, but in both cases without the booklet with the lead lines, chords, lyrics, and what not. Talk about leaving you high and dry. You’re going to have to find the album, and you can forget about the European versions, because all they give you are the lyrics.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Little Feat’s The Last Record Album arrived in October 1975, lean and sly, with the band deep in its creative stride. Nearly 50 years later, the album returns in a newly remastered and expanded edition that brings fresh light to one of the most quietly compelling records in the band’s catalog.

The Last Record Album (Deluxe Edition) will be available on October 24 as a 4CD set, 2LP, and digitally. All formats include the newly remastered album along with rarities and previously unreleased studio material. The 4CD set also features an unreleased recording of the band’s concert at Boston’s Orpheum Theatre on Halloween night in 1975. Pre-order HERE. A standalone CD of the band’s unreleased May 1976 show at Charlton Athletic Football Ground in London will also be available exclusively at Rhino.com.

The album was produced by Jason Jones—who also produced the Deluxe Edition—and captures Little Feat performing in front of a UK audience less than a year after the album’s release. An alternate version of “Long Distance Love,” previously unheard, is available digitally today, along with a newly restored full-length promo video for the track.

Arriving October 17, 1975, The Last Record Album marked a shift in the group’s creative balance. The lineup—Lowell George, Richie Hayward, Paul Barrère, Bill Payne, Kenny Gradney, and Sam Clayton—had coalesced over several albums, but this was the moment when the full range of their songwriting voices stepped forward. George delivered the aching ballad “Long Distance Love,” Barrère co-wrote the crowd favorite “All That You Dream,” and Payne contributed the expansive “Day Or Night”—tracks that quickly became staples of the band’s live show.

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Celebrating Jody Stephens in advance of his 73rd birthday tomorrow. —Ed.

The Memphis group Big Star has long been a favorite of folks who love smartly conceived guitar-based pop-rock, and while few bought their records when they were hot off the presses, their status as an enduring cult staple is undeniable. After a long relationship with discerning turntables everywhere, Big Star received the Big Screen treatment with a documentary titled Nothing Can Hurt Me, and the soundtrack collects unique mixes of material long-considered classic. That the songs included here could easily slay a busload of Big Star newbies is testament to not only the band’s everlasting importance but also to the admirable ambitions that made this 2LP set and its accompanying film possible.

Over the last few decades the music documentary has really become one of the steadiest (some might say unrelenting) currents in the whole vast field of non-fiction filmmaking. And this shouldn’t be any kind of surprise. For everybody loves music, or so it’s often been said. But this doesn’t change the fact that some musicians/bands are far more deserving of having their story represented on film than others.

Simply stating that a very few groups are more worthy than Big Star of having their existence outlined through the medium of the film doc can initially smack of extreme devotion and perhaps even flat-out hyperbole. For just like the old saw that everybody loves music, it’s just as often been said that everybody has a story, and even, nay especially, in the non-fiction field the plain facts of the narrative ultimately aren’t as important as the way the events get told.

But if we dig a little deeper, the documentary’s inherent connection with the “real world,” or specifically the manner in which things don’t always work out the way we’d like them to, is especially resonant to the tale of Andy Hummel, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens, and Alex Chilton. For unlike the life of Ray Charles or the early years of The Beatles, Big Star is far from a good fit for the Hollywood treatment, or at least for the situation as it currently stands in the movie-making industry.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Rhino revisits The Monkees’ most sonically adventurous studio album with two new editions of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. On October 3, the album will receive its first-ever vinyl pressing from the original analog stereo master reels as part of the Rhino High Fidelity series. Alongside the High Fidelity pressing, the release returns in an expansive 4CD/7-inch Super Deluxe Edition featuring previously unreleased recordings, new mixes, and rarities.

Although the album has been reissued before, the original stereo masters were notoriously difficult to access and have never been used for vinyl—until now. Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (Rhino High Fidelity) is the first vinyl pressing sourced directly from the unaltered 1967 stereo master. Cut AAA by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio restores the original dynamics and mix integrity without the compression or EQ added to the Colgems LPs. Pressed on 180-gram black vinyl and limited to 5,000 individually numbered copies, the LP is available exclusively from Rhino.com. Order HERE.

Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (Super Deluxe Edition) collects more than 100 tracks across four CDs, including the original mono and stereo mixes of the album, plus newly created stereo mixes and alternate mono mixes. Two additional discs trace the album’s creative arc with demos, outtakes, and backing tracks sourced from the original session reels—alongside several television mixes appearing on physical media for the first time. Available exclusively at monkees.com.

The set was produced by Andrew Sandoval, who has led Rhino’s Monkees reissues for over 35 years. His new liner notes provide historical context, session insights, and details about the album’s creation and legacy. Also included is a 32-page booklet packed with rare photos and ephemera from the era.

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Pink Floyd’s 1967 debut LP The Piper at the Gates of Dawn may have invented progressive rock; definitely invented space rock and Blue Oyster Cult and Hawkwind and hence Lemmy; has arguably been the soundtrack to more acid trips than any other album in history; and is deeply beloved by just about every sentient being on the planet but yours truly.

I love it and hate it in equal measure, which makes me a blackguard I know, and I’m not a member of the cult of Syd Barrett either, which makes me doubly a blackguard, because who doesn’t love poor benighted childlike Syd, rock’s most famous genius acid casualty?

Well, I love him and I don’t.

It could well be because (and I blame my mother) I was never read The Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland, Winnie-the-Pooh or any other children’s classics as a mere sprog, but graduated straight to Sgt. Fury comic books. As a result I’m oblivious to the charms of childlike whimsy and English childlike whimsy in particular, and have in fact been diagnosed with a chronic and incurable case of Childlike Whimsy Deficiency Disorder, which is why when it’s English whimsy I seek, I go straight to the Adult Whimsy of the Bonzo Dog Band, who are sophisticated and cynical and funny.

Syd Barrett sings about riding unicorns. If a unicorn were to appear in a Bonzo Dog Band song, they’d probably shoot it.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Billie Eilish, Post Malone, Billy Joel, Bruno Mars, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Wicked, Bob Dylan, Marcus King, Spinal Tap, Benson Boone, George Harrison, Chappell Roan, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and more!

2025 has been a great year for record stores, and we’re going out with a bang, celebrating with over 170 RSD Black Friday releases from many of their favorite artists.

62 years after the release of the Free Wheelin’ Bob Dylan, Record Store Day celebrates the album as Bob Dylan intended, before the suits at Columbia Records censored some of the tracks. Today we are less paranoid about offending members of the John Birch Society and are excited to present the RSD Black Friday The Original Free Wheelin’ Bob Dylan album, including the tracks “Rocks and Gravel,” “Let Me Die in My Footsteps,” “Rambling, Gambling Willie,” and “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues,” the song that prompted Dylan to walk off the Ed Sullivan Show when Ed wouldn’t let him play it.

As if this weren’t enough, RSD Black Friday also sees the release of a very special Bob Dylan “Masters of War” 7” single, recorded in Alan Lomax’s apartment in 1962. The B-Side of this amazing 7” will be a conversation that Alan and Bob had after the recording.

After decades of hard work, Spinal Tap releases their “RSD Scalpers Edition” of The End Continues soundtrack album, limited to 2000 copies. This RSD Black Friday release is sure to please the flippers and hard core fans who must own everything that Spinal Tap releases. It includes three additional previously unheard tracks, a unique album cover, and a poster and is pressed on 181 gram vinyl!

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Stiff Little Fingers iconic debut Inflammable Material was one of the most important records of its era. Originally released in 1979 at the height of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, the album depicted volatile life in Belfast at the time and was met with critical acclaim. These reissues, which have been overseen by Gordon Ogilvie, the band’s original manager, can be pre-ordered now and comes in three formats.

The 4CD/1DVD set contains a remastered version of the original album, a disc of unreleased demos, an unreleased live performance from Troon in 1979 and a CD of the pertinent John Peel sessions from the BBC. The DVD contains unreleased material: The legendary Rough Trade promo video from 1979, an unreleased version of the band performing “Alternative Ulster” from October 1978, plus an interview, originally included in the film Shellshock Rock (Hollywood Films) and a performance from The Old Grey Whistle Test from Friars in May 1979.

Accompanying the music are images of rare memorabilia and photos and new liner notes from legendary journalist Stuart Baillie. The double-LP and double-CD sets include the original album and the unreleased Troon 1979 performance with the latter containing rare images.

Formed in Belfast in 1977 at the height of The Troubles. Jake Burns, Henry Cluney, Brian Faloon were originally in a rock covers band before the rise of punk began to have an influence on them. With a change of direction, Ali McMordie joined them and they became Stiff Little Fingers and started to write their own material. Jake Burns would later go on and credit The Clash as “… giving me the confidence, through its lyrical subject matter, to realise it was OK to write about my own life and experiences.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Varèse Sarabande and Craft Recordings celebrate 50 years of Miloš Forman’s groundbreaking film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest with a special vinyl reissue of Jack Nitzsche’s Academy Award- and GRAMMY® Award nominated score.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest films in American cinema, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest swept the “Big Five” Academy Awards® at the 1976 ceremony—including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), and Best Actress (Louise Fletcher)—cementing its place in history. For this anniversary pressing, Nitzsche’s haunting score has been newly remastered (AAA) from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio.

Available for pre-order, the release arrives in multiple collectible color variants. At Barnes & Noble, fans can purchase the new release on Translucent Forest Green vinyl; exclusive to the Varèse Sarabande Store is a Coke Bottle Clear vinyl, and traditional black vinyl will be available via wide release. Each edition comes packaged in a gatefold jacket.

Jack Nitzsche was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer and record producer. He rose to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand man of producer Phil Spector and went on to work with the Rolling Stones, Neil Young and others. He worked extensively in film scores including for Performance, The Exorcist, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In 1983, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for co-writing “Up Where We Belong” with Buffy Sainte-Marie.

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Celebrating Don McLean on his 80th birthday. —Ed.

Where were you the day the music died? I was living in rustic Littlestown, Pennsylvania, and at the tender age of 4 months I didn’t know Buddy Holly from a jar of pureed peas.

But that’s the amazing thing about Don McLean’s 1971 masterpiece “American Pie.” I can’t listen to it without feeling a sense of immense loss. McLean brings the November 1959 plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa that took the lives of Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper and lays it at my door.

The music didn’t really die that day; had that been the case, Don McLean wouldn’t have had the material to write the moralistic social and musical allegory that is “American Pie.” Anyway, without further ado, here are some random thoughts on some words and music that spoke to an entire generation.

1. “American Pie” succeeds as a piece of narrative poetry. It’s not great narrative poetry like Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” mind you, but its’ encapsulates the years between 1959-1969 in order to anatomize two kinds of death; first, the death of first wave rock and roll in that frozen cornfield in Iowa, and second, the death of hippie innocence personified by the murder of Meredith Hunter at the hands of the Hell’s Angels at Altamont.

2. McLean kept mum about the meaning of his lyrics for decades. He told one interviewer, “They’re beyond analysis. They’re poetry.” When another interview asked what the song meant he replied, “It means I don’t ever have to work again if I don’t want to.”

3. Buddy Holly chartered that doomed Beechcraft 35 Bonanza because he wanted to catch up on his laundry. In short, he didn’t die in the name of rock’n’roll. He died in the name of clean underwear.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The Darkness celebrate the 20th anniversary of their gold selling second album One Way Ticket to Hell…and Back with a 4CD set of the original album, b-sides, remixes, singles, and never before released live at NEC, Birmingham which has been newly mixed by Dan Hawkins. The original album will also be available on hell fire coloured vinyl and single CD formats. All formats are available to pre-order now from here.

Originally released in November 2005 and came off the back of the bands muti-platinum selling debut Permission To Land (2003) that had catapulted the band to stratigraphic levels, simultaneously forcing rock back into the mainstream consciousness.

Having toured relentlessly since the release of their debut, One Way Ticket to Hell…and Back was one of the most anticipated albums of 2005. Written by Justin and Dan Hawkins, it was produced by Roy Thomas Baker (Queen, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie) and it was well received—Alternative Press rating it 5/5, Q magazine and The Guardian both gave it 4/5, with the former including it in its Albums Of The Year list. The album went on to chart well through Europe and beyond and has been certified gold in the UK alone.

Dan Hawkins, “It’s wonderful to let the light shine once again on this album—the jewels in the crown of this release are undoubtedly the live performance from a sold out show at the Birmingham NEC and the original demos that we thought were lost forever! Between those and a revamped and refreshed original album (including vinyl) this is a must have for TD fans everywhere. It’s also great to remember Roy Thomas Baker (RIP) whom we are eternally grateful to have met and worked with in this completely fraught and gloriously bonkers album project!”

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