VIA PRESS RELEASE | Vol. 12: 1996 of On Record, a comprehensive series of award-winning books, continues author and Colorado Music Experience director G. Brown’s signature, year-by-year chronicle of popular music from 1978 to 1998.

Vol. 12: 1996 brings together rare archival images and more than 100 in-depth interviews, revisiting a vibrant year in the music landscape. G. Brown, the longtime music journalist and radio personality who authored this series, presents a richly textured retrospective, featuring: pop icons like Celine Dion, Kenny G, and the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, alternative trailblazers such as Beck, Weezer, Sublime, and Rage Against the Machine, emerging talents including Dave Matthews Band, The Roots, and Wilco, genre-spanning coverage including hip-hop, classic rock, country, jazz and new age.

Interview-based artist profiles encompassing Fiona Apple, The Cardigans, Marilyn Manson, Jamiroquai, Eels, Social Distortion, Tool, Kula Shaker, Cibo Matto, Stone Temple Pilots, Tori Amos, Tony Toni Tone, New Edition, and Counting Crows.

Marking more than 50 years as one of America’s foremost popular music writers, G. Brown has interviewed more than 3,000 musicians, ranging from superstars to one-hit wonders in every genre. Each edition overflows with rare, powerful and informative editorial photographs from Brown’s personal archive of close to 15,000 images amassed over decades. These beautifully crafted, reader-friendly volumes, presented in a lively, engaging style, invite perusing at any point within the book.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Recordings celebrates Los Angeles Groove ‘n’ Hook merchants The Record Company and their GRAMMY®-nominated debut with an expanded tenth anniversary edition of Give It Back to You. The deluxe reissue includes the original 10-track album—featuring the chart-topping hit “Off the Ground,” as well as favorites such as “Rita Mae Young” and “On the Move”—plus the band’s previously unreleased first concert, captured in bassist Alex Stiff’s Los Feliz living home in 2013.

The intimate set offers a glimpse into the band’s creative process with some of their earliest material, including songs that would later appear on Give It Back to You, as well as a down-and-dirty rendition of the Bob Seger classic, “Old Time Rock & Roll” (the band would go on to open for the legendary rocker in 2019). Arriving February 20th, 2026, and available to pre-order today, the album will be released on CD, as a 2-LP gatefold set, and on digital platforms. The digital edition will feature even more additional content—including bonus mixes, live versions, acoustic takes, covers, and more—stay tuned to the band’s official website and socials for the full tracklist reveal.

As part of their anniversary celebration, the band will also perform the album in its entirety during a 27-show run. The Give It Back to You Tour kicks off January 8th in Park City and concludes with a hometown show in Los Angeles on March 28th. Visit the band’s official site for tickets and more info.

The Record Company was born out of a late-night hang in 2011, when Chris Vos (vocals, guitar), Alex Stiff (bass, backing vocals), and Marc Cazorla (drums, backing vocals) spun classic blues records like John Lee Hooker’s Hooker ’N Heat and swapped stories of their favorite concerts (Iggy Pop & The Stooges, among them). Energized by the evening, the three musicians reconvened the next day for a jam session at Stiff’s Los Feliz home. Before long, his living room would become the band’s epicenter as they wrote songs, performed for friends, and, eventually, recorded and mixed their debut album, Give It Back to You.

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Remembering Rickie Lee Reynolds, born on this day in 1948. —Ed.

Just how great are Black Oak Arkansas? Well rock critic Ubermensch Robert Christgau once posed the question of why they couldn’t fill NYC’s Academy of Music on a Saturday night after two years of relentless touring and then answered it himself with the words, “Because unlike most similar bands they have never achieved competence—they are actively untalented, incapable of even an interesting cop.”

Is that a glowing endorsement or what? But if you ask me Christgau was missing the point. If you have a sense of humor and a taste for the totally inexplicable those are the very qualities that make Black Oak Arkansas so great! I mean, ANYBODY can be competent! And talent’s bullshit! The Police were talented, and they should have been arrested! Talent kills!

Black Oak Arkansas were working at a level of total inspiration that made basic proficiency much less mastery irrelevant, starting from the day they stole the PA from their high school and set up in an abandoned grain bin at the outskirts of the tiny burg they’d name themselves after and commenced to produce such an ear-splitting din that it took the cops all of ten minutes or so to swoop down on ‘em and not only pull the plug but arrest them for grand larceny, after which they were sentenced to TWENTY-SIX YEARS at some horrifying penal farm, although the sentence was later suspended. But there’s a lesson in there—playing the sounds they heard in their collective unhinged head could have put them away for decades, and it that ain’t the spirit of rock ’n’ roll, what is?

Black Oak Arkansas was a band of renegade long-haired redneck Krishna Baptists at the bizarro fringe of the southern rock movement who liked to sing about the halls of Karma and called themselves “mutants of the monster” and lived at one with nature in some kind of hairy hippie commune in the sticks where they perfected their totally incompetent but always electrifying and utterly unique brand of radioactive psychedelic southern rock, complete with their own three-guitar army and a drummer who liked to play solos with his bare hands, perhaps because he couldn’t afford drum sticks. But if so, why didn’t he just steal some? Arkansas is Purdue Country and literally crawling with chickens!

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Hearing Charles Mingus and his band in performance is a reliable pleasure, and when his various aggregations were really cooking, the sounds they produced remain one of the joys of modern music. Recorded in 1964 and released the following year, Mingus at Monterey is one of the bassist-bandleader-composer’s finest live recordings. Reissued earlier in 2025 for Record Store Day, the initial 2LP set quickly sold out after hitting the album charts. Now it’s back with a fresh edition via Candid Records in partnership with Charles Mingus’ Jazz Workshop, Inc. It’s a delight from start to finish. All Mingus fans need a copy.

The live stage is where any jazz musician has to make it. It can be at Lincoln Center or in the back room of a Unitarian church, in a nightclub after midnight, or in a college auditorium before noon, in a museum’s performance space, or under the canopy at a festival: it’s where the musicians prove they have the stuff.

Charles Mingus proved it repeatedly through a long, consistently evolving life in music, but in 1962, he hit a creative low point on the stage as his ambitious performance, conceived by Mingus not as a typical concert but as a sort of recording session with audience/workshop hybrid, was a notorious debacle, although that didn’t stop United Artists from releasing a portion of the evening as Town Hall Concert in 1962.

Town Hall Concert was reissued as an expanded CD in 1994 as The Complete Town Hall Concert. The addition of bonus material clarified that the event wasn’t as disastrous as it was long assessed, but it was still a tough night by any yardstick. Take note that the 1962 Town Hall show shouldn’t be confused with the release of a 1964 live recording also titled Town Hall Concert; we’ll discuss this return engagement a bit further down.

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WORDS AND IMAGES: CODY CRULZ IN LAS VEGAS, NV | Under the crisp Las Vegas sun, the When We Were Young Fest 2025 brought together fans of emo, punk rock, and hardcore for a day of unforgettable performances. With four stages and a lineup of iconic bands, the festival was a celebration of the music that shaped generations. From emotional anthems to chaotic pits, the day was packed with energy, nostalgia, and moments that will live on in fans’ memories forever.

The day kicked off at the Ghost Stage with The Amity Affliction, whose anthems of heartache and resilience energized the early crowd. Singer Joel Birch delivered raw emotion, giving fans hope through their powerful lyrics. Over at the Main Stages, The Story So Far brought their signature blend of Pop Punk and angst, with Parker Cannon leading the crowd in a cathartic singalong.

Yellowcard followed, delivering summer anthems like “Ocean Avenue” with Ryan Key’s soaring vocals and Sean Mackin’s iconic violin melodies. Their set was a core memory in the making, perfectly capturing the festival’s nostalgic spirit. Simple Plan kept the energy high, playing hits like “Addicted” and “Welcome to My Life,” while surprising fans with Travis Clark of We The Kings for “Where I Belong” and a Scooby-Doo-themed performance of their iconic theme song.

Taking fans back even further, The Starting Line transported the crowd to the early 2000s with their Drive-Thru Records-era classics. Closing with “Best of Me,” their set was a heartfelt reminder of the band’s pivotal role in shaping the Pop Punk scene.

The energy shifted as Knocked Loose unleashed mayhem on the crowd. Bryan Garris’s piercing vocals and the band’s crushing breakdowns turned the pit into chaos, culminating in a wall of death that left no one unscathed. Meanwhile, All Time Low brought a lighter vibe to the Seven Eleven Stage, celebrating the release of their new album Everyone’s Talking. With hits like “Weightless” and “Dear Maria, Count Me In,” plus a guest appearance from Blackbear for “Monsters,” their set was a highlight of the day.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | 20th Century Studios and Columbia Records announce the forthcoming release of Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), featuring twelve new recordings by Jeremy Allen White and the cast of the critically acclaimed film.

The soundtrack is available for pre-order now, with five songs arriving alongside the film’s release on October 24. The full album will be available on December 5 across CD, vinyl, and digital. Produced by multiple GRAMMY® Award winner Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Sturgill Simpson), the album features performances by Jeremy Allen White, Jake Kiszka and Sam F. Kiszka of Greta Van Fleet, Jay Buchanan, Aksel Coe, and Bobby Emmett.

The soundtrack and film chronicle the making of Bruce Springsteen’s landmark 1982 album Nebraska—a haunting, intimate collection written and recorded as Springsteen grappled with the demands of success and the specter of his past.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere captures this pivotal moment in his career, when raw storytelling and emotional honesty redefined his artistry and cemented Nebraska as one of the most enduring works in American music.

Celebrating Simon Le Bon on his 67th birthday. —Ed.

God, did I detest Duran Duran growing up. Hated them. Loathed them. Wanted to go to England and set them on fire. With a flamethrower. Burn them to a synthpop crisp. They were everything I despised; slick, synthesizer-driven, and catchy, the perfect betrayal of everything punk had set out to do.

Plus they were worked with fashion designers to perfect their look, something I’d only allow David Bowie to do. And they were even too lazy to think of a second word for their band that wasn’t the same as the first word. Come on! Get up off your ass and think of another word! Who do you want to be, Talk Talk? Robert Christgau put the New Wave supergroup in his place when he called them, “The most deplorable pop stars of the postpunk if not post-Presley era.” I’d cast my vote for the Police, but he’s on to something.

But something appalling happened over the years, at least in my case; hatred turned to a grudging neutrality, and I was finally able to appreciate their synthpop charms. Sort of. They’re still too slick by a country mile, but slick is what synthpop was—machines making perfect noises. But I can listen to them now without wanting to die, and I suspect that’s a bad thing. Have I surrendered? Or have I merely succumbed to that insidious undertow of nostalgia that so frequently turns the songs you loathed in your youth into latter-day radio sing-alongs? It’s a mystery, that nostalgia; how is it I suddenly like the hated “Hungry Like the Wolf” but will never, ever, surrender my adamantine loathing for Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock’n’Roll”?

Formed in Birmingham, England in 1978 and early considered part of the New Romantic Movement, they moved on to glory as MTV innovators—they were so innovative, in fact, they made me want to claw my eyes out—and their second LP, 1982’s Rio, went platinum. The band’s “classic” lineup included Simon Le Bon on vocals, Nick Rhodes on keyboards and synthesizers, John Taylor on bass and backing vocals, Roger Taylor on drums and percussion, and Andy Taylor on guitar and backing vocals.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Roxy Music’s iconic 1975 single “Love Is The Drug” celebrates its 50th anniversary with an exclusive 12” vinyl EP, due 12th December 2025 via Virgin/UMR and available to pre-order now.

This special 50th anniversary edition marks the very first 12” vinyl release of “Love Is The Drug” and features the essential original mix, two of the most sought-after remixes in Greg Wilson’s extended edit, and Todd Terje’s “Disco Dub,” as well as the original 7” B-Side, “Sultanesque.” “Love Is The Drug” is the first single from Siren, Roxy Music’s vital fifth studio album. It shot to #2 in the UK Singles Chart on its release in 1975 and became the band’s highest charting single in North America.

“Love Is The Drug” remains one of the most instantly recognisable songs of the 1970s—a global chart hit that was a key influence on the next generation of bands such as Gang of Four, PiL, Simple Minds, and the Human League, as well as Nile Rodgers of Chic, who acknowledged that its bass riff was a major influence on Chic’s “Good Times.”

“Love Is The Drug” is one of Roxy Music’s top three most-streamed tracks ever. Driven by its seductive bassline and Bryan Ferry’s confident croon, “Love Is The Drug” helped redefine the sound of rock and pop in the mid‑’70s and was heralded by critics as provocative, stylish, proto‑new‑wave gold.

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The planet’s a mess, the US of A is going down the shitter, and everybody seems to hate everybody else, but it wasn’t always this way. There was a time, 1986 and early 1987 to be exact, when peace, love, and understanding reigned supreme.

And there was a simple reason for this—we were all Wang Chunging.

We were Wang Chunging in Detroit, Wang Chunging in Berlin, Bangkok, Bora Bora, and Bangor, Maine, Wang Chunging in clubs and cars and bars and retirement homes and passenger jets soaring high above the flyover states, where every single person in every single one of those flyover states was Wang Chunging until their eyes rolled up in the backs of their heads. None of us really knew what we were Wang Chunging about, or even what Wang Chunging entailed, but we were Wang Chunging anyway, and we were all deliriously happy.

And for that, we have the English New Wave duo Wang Chung to thank. I don’t know how they failed to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

The sad truth is Wang Chung never won a single prize period, and to add insult to injury the video for the song that had us all Wang Chunging to begin with, “Everybody Have Fun Tonight,” was banned by the BBC after a medical expert determined that its machine-gun editing (some shots approach up to 1/25th of a second between edits) could cause epileptic fits. It would have been one thing if it had been banned because it revealed Wang Chunging to be an interspecies sex act. But the video tells us nothing. You can watch it and Wang Chung to it, hell, you can even have an epileptic fit to it, but you still won’t know what Wang Chunging is.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Following their show-stopping performance at the When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas, Panic! At The Disco continue to celebrate the two decades since the arrival of their ground-breaking, multi-platinum debut album with the announcement of A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out (20th Anniversary Deluxe).

Highlighted by the newly Diamond-certified smash “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” the seminal release catapulted the Las Vegas band to rock stardom and established them as one of the defining acts of their generation. Available on January 23, 2026, via DCD2/Fueled By Ramen, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out (20th Anniversary Deluxe) will be released as a special limited edition 4-LP box set as well as a standard double-LP vinyl package. Pre-order/pre-save HERE.

To mark the occasion, Panic! At The Disco have released their fan-favorite, Live In Denver, concert movie on YouTube. The live audio recording of the concert is available now on all streaming platforms for the first time. Captured at Denver, Colorado’s Fillmore Auditorium during the band’s first US headlining tour in 2006, Live In Denver was initially released as a live album and DVD later that year. A legendary fan-favorite, the concert showcased the band’s incredible ambition at such an early stage of their career and featured electrifying performances of every single track from A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “This is a wonderful book of pop music history. A man obsessed with the beauty of creative artists and wanting to create his own legacy and to enable other musicians to have a voice by releasing their magic. We need more people like him in a world full of mass-produced mediocrity.” —Elton John

British producer, musician, and record-company CEO Simon Raymonde helped to create some of the most beautiful and memorable albums of the ’80s and ’90s. From 1983 to 1997, he was one-third of seminal band Cocteau Twins and associated offshoot This Mortal Coil where he helped create music that continues to cast a spell over millions. He also launched and still runs the influential record label, Bella Union. On November 18th, Bonnier Books will release his award-winning autobiography In One Ear: Cocteau Twins, Ivor And Me—his story, in his words.

To celebrate the book release, Raymonde has also announced several book events across the U.S including stops at Seattle’s Easy Street Records, Los Angeles’ Book Soup, and New York’s Rough Trade Records, and in San Francisco at a venue to be announced soon. For more info on the book events, head HERE.

Beginning with Simon’s remarkable childhood and exploring his relationship with his father, Ivor Raymonde—the legendary producer, musician, and arranger for acts such as the Walker Brothers and songwriter for artists including Dusty Springfield, the book journeys through the musician’s rise to prominence and his time with Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil.

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