VIA PRESS RELEASE | Red Rockers revisit their early punk roots with It’s in Our Blood, a previously unreleased 2023 live set recorded in front of a sold-out crowd at Tipitina’s in the band’s hometown of New Orleans. The title will be available on Blu-ray, translucent red vinyl LP, CD, and digital, with the Blu-ray featuring bonus tracks. It’s in our Blood arrives in stores May 22 from Liberation Hall. Distribution will be through MVD Entertainment Group (USA) and Wienerworld (UK). Pre-order at Bandcamp.

Active from 1979 to 1985, Red Rockers were originally inspired by the radical political songs and styles of The Clash and The Dils. The band’s name is an homage to “Red Rockers Rule,” a song co-written by punk brothers Tony and Chip Kinman of The Dils, Rank & File, and Blackbird.

Red Rockers stormed out of the gate in 1980 with “Guns of Revolution,” a debut 7-inch single that sent shockwaves through the American punk underground and quickly made the band a popular live draw. A debut album, Condition Red, arrived the following year and galvanized critical enthusiasm for the band.

Rolling Stone dubbed them “the American Clash” and called out their “power, aggression, and highly charged political anger.” Despite the acclaim, and tour dates with The Clash, 415 Records struggled to convert the plaudits into record sales.

The Red Rockers’ fortunes would turn around in 1983 with the arrival of “China.” The first single off the band’s second album (Good as Gold), “China” was an immediate hit at college radio and MTV, and opened the doors to tours with The Cars, The Kinks, the Go-Go’s, Joan Jett, The B-52’s, and Men at Work. A final album, Schizophrenic Circus, was greeted with controversy over the band’s commercial new sound and image, and signaled the end for Red Rockers. The band’s legacy would remain mostly dormant for several decades.

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Neil Young remains one of the most prolific artists in music today. While he continues to put out previously unreleased live and studio recordings from his vast archives and reissues of albums from his full catalog, he also records new studio albums, releases live concert recordings from recent tours, and puts out soundtrack releases. Two recent must-have Young releases, from the many that came out in roughly the last 15 months, are Oceanside Countryside and Coastal.

Oceanside Countryside is an album Young shelved, consisting of songs he originally recorded by himself in 1977 in Florida, as well as several tracks he recorded with additional musicians in Nashville. Except for one song, all the music here would eventually be released in fuller versions. On the tracks with band backing, the core players are Ben Keith on dobro, Rufus Thibodeaux on fiddle, Joe Osborn on bass, and Karl T. Himmel on drums. There are also contributions from Tim Drummond, Greg Thomas, Dennis Belfield, and Tom Scribner, with Levon Helm of the Band on “The Old Homestead.”

This was the Comes a Time period, and most of the music has a wistful, acoustic country feel, with the quintessential ’70s classic Neil Young sound. “Goin’ Back,” “Human Highway,” and “Field of Opportunity” would come out on Comes a Time. “Dance Dance Dance” appeared on Harvest. “It Might Have Been” appeared on A Treasure. “Sail Away” would turn up on Rust Never Sleeps. “Lost In Space” appeared on Hawks and Doves, and “The Old Homestead” would appear on Hawks and Doves.

“Captain Kennedy” has been released in different versions on American Stars and Bars, Hitchhiker, and Chrome Dreams. “Pocahontas” would appear on Rust Never Sleeps, Hitchhiker, and Chrome Dreams. “Human Highway” would also appear on Hitchhiker and was intended for an aborted Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young album.

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In 2008, Jon Irabagon won the Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition. Since then, his productivity as a player, composer, and improviser has been immense. His latest recording, just released on CD and digital through his own label Irabbagast Records, is Focus Out. It offers seven pieces featuring his quartet with Matt Mitchell on piano and Fender Rhodes, Chris Lightcap on electric bass, and Dan Weiss on drums, plus guests: KOKAYI on vocals, Donny McCaslin and Mark Shim on tenor sax, Miles Okazaki on guitar, and Dave Ballou on trumpet. Irabagon plays alto on this energetic and adventurous set.

Jon Irabagon was solidly on the scene prior to winning the Monk Sax Competition, most notably in Mostly Other People Do the Killing, a mind-bendingly proficient ensemble that could grapple with the grand span of jazz history through a seamless combination of virtuosity and unconventionality, with occasional stabs of humor.

As he played on 11 of Mostly Other People Do the Killing’s releases up to 2017, Irabagon also joined ensembles led by drummers Barry Altschul and William Hooker, trumpeter Dave Douglas, and guitarist Mary Halvorson. Additionally, numerous recordings in co-leadership mode have been released along with an increasing number of his own albums.

Having landed the opportunity through the Monk Competition victory to cut a record as leader for the jazz label Concord, the resulting set, The Observer, spotlighted him in straight-ahead mode with top-flight backing including trumpeter Nicholas Payton, pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Rufus Reid, drummer Victor Lewis, and on one track, a duet with pianist Bertha Hope.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Don’t play this in the car when you drive. The groove is so funky, you’ll wreck.” —James Brown

Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MoFi), the leader in high-fidelity audio reissues, announces the first-ever audiophile vinyl release of Kool and the Gang’s exhilarating 1971 album, Live at P.J.’s.

Arriving March 20, the album is available for order at mofi.com as a numbered-edition 180g 33RPM LP limited to 2,000 copies. Sourced from the original analog master tapes (1/4” / 15 IPS analog master to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe), the record is pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing and housed in a premium Stoughton gatefold jacket.

Make it funky. Kool and the Gang do that and much more on Live at P.J.’s, a freewheeling concert album that preceded the resurgent soul-jazz movement by decades. Recorded at the Hollywood, CA, club on a late-May Saturday night in 1971, the wordless set demonstrates the boundless diversity and virtuosity of the septet—Robert “Kool” Bell, Ronald Bell, George Brown, Claydes Smith, Robert Mickens, Dennis Thomas, and Ricky West.

Compared to prior editions, this restorative reissue plays with deeper, tauter bass, enhanced definition, and more realistic presence. Everything from the brassiness of the horns to the snap of the snare and the rattle of the congas comes across in full-range perspective.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The Head and The Heart have announced the release of a deluxe, remastered version of their RIAA Certified Platinum self-titled debut album on May 1 to celebrate its 15-year anniversary. The release includes a limited vinyl pressing, along with a digital release on all digital platforms.

“Fifteen years ago, we were traveling with burned CDs and cut-up old blue jeans, stamped with “The Head And The Heart” to put the copies in. We had no expectations and a full tank of gas. We had songs and we had each other…Our roots had grown and we were about to begin a wild journey.

In those early days before record labels and long tours, we had a demo of “Lost In My Mind” that we had recorded in our apartment in Seattle in late 2009. It was loose, imperfect, and honest in a way that only first attempts can be. We’re so excited to dust it off and present it to you today!

Listening back to it, we’re transported to that apartment, when all that existed was belief in our songs and each other. Over the last year, playing these songs again has brought us back to the beginning, to that feeling of possibility. And there’s way more coming soon. More dates, More nights to celebrate what this record has meant to us, and hopefully to you.

Thank you for growing with us. Thank you for staying. Fifteen years later, it still feels like we’re just getting started.”
—Tyler Williams, The Head and The Heart

Last week, The Head And The Heart announced a North American tour kicking off later this spring where they will perform the album in its entirety as part of the 15 year celebration. The tour kicks off in Nashville, IN on May 1 and includes stops at Roosevelt University Auditorium Theatre in Chicago on May 2, Brooklyn Paramount in NYC on May 10, and more. The tour will conclude at Boch Center – Wang Theatre in Boston on May 14.

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Remembering Nat King Cole, born on this day in 1919. —Ed.

Nat King Cole’s enduring renown derives from his skill as a vocalist, but he’s also arguably the most underrated of jazz’s great pianists. The seven CDs or ten LPs comprising Hittin’ The Ramp: The Early Years (1936-1943) do a stellar job of highlighting Cole’s keyboard prowess while documenting the growth of his superb trio with guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Wesley Prince first, and later Johnny Miller. There are also brief visits from the great saxophonists Lester Young and Dexter Gordon and a ton of singing, though the approach lands solidly in a hot and often vocal group zone. 

Back in 1991, Mosaic Records issued The Complete Capitol Recordings of the Nat King Cole Trio, an exhaustive limited-edition set spread across 18 compact discs or 27 vinyl records. It was obviously produced for hardcore jazz nut collectors, the kind of listener who would know that Cole had worked extensively as a musician prior to his career-defining move to Capitol (an association he would maintain throughout his superstardom until the end of his life) but with very few commercial records detailing said period.

Hittin’ The Ramp features jukebox-only discs, private recordings, and a slew of radio transcriptions along with the handful of sessions that resulted in discs that were available for retail purchase, with the vast majority of the selections here officially released for the first time. There is a smidge of overlap with the Mosaic collection, but it doesn’t arrive until LP eight (or CD six) with “Vom, Vim, Veedle” commencing a smattering of cuts for the small Excelsior and Premier labels which were later purchased by Capitol and serve as the kickoff to the Mosaic set.

This repetition isn’t likely to bother owners of The Complete Capitol Recordings one bit, as it’s a miniscule percentage, specifically ten tracks out of Hittin’ The Ramp’s 183. Yes, that’s a lot of music, but slim compared to the behemoth decades-of-discovery scenario presented by Mosaic’s presentation of Capitol’s holdings, though in its vinyl incarnation Resonance’s achievement is also a limited edition.

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Although Celtic punk can be a very dicey proposition, Boiled in Lead have long been a standard of the hybrid style’s success. Persevering, the band has grown into a Minneapolis institution. The reality is that their sound branches out much farther than a simple blend of Irish cadences and raw and simple riffs. Through lineup changes, Boiled in Lead’s been at it since the mid-1980s, and on March 20, they release their twelfth album King of the Dogwoods on colored vinyl, compact disc, and digital through Omnium Records.

The breadth of Boiled in Lead’s work is varied to the point where they are regularly described as simply folk-punk. It’s a term that can conjure up unpleasant visions of street corner strummer-cussers of a rudimentary sort, either solo or in band formation. To summarize, too many strive for Billy Bragg at his most inspired and stripped down and come up far short. If taking influence from Violent Femmes, the goal is sadly to harness the angsty rather than the eclectic.

If brancher-outers, Boiled in Lead, have never cozied up to the sound of Camper Van Beethoven (well, almost never anyway), in part because the Minnesota crew have consistently kept a loose handle on their Celtic-punk foundation (Irish music was rarely if ever part of Camper’s thing). All the while, Boiled in Lead resists cliché.

For many, Celtic-punk begins and ends with The Pogues. But there is a core difference between The Pogues and Boiled in Lead. The Pogues were the kind of band Elvis Costello would agree to produce. Boiled in Lead are much tougher in comportment, perfectly comfortable on a bill with Hüsker Dü, but never faltering into soused-ass group sing-alongs. Summed up in a word: smart.

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LAS VEGAS, NV | There are rock shows, and then there are moments—those rare, full-body experiences where the music stops being something you listen to and starts being something that happens to you. Saturday night at Dolby Live at Park MGM in Las Vegas, Sammy Hagar delivered exactly that.

Flanked by a supergroup that reads like a fever dream written by every rock kid who ever taped a poster to their bedroom ceiling, the Red Rocker tore through 145 minutes and 17 songs of hard rock history with the relentless, joyful fury of a man who has absolutely nothing left to prove—and everything left to give. If you have ever loved Van Halen, Chickenfoot, or the singular, sun-soaked swagger of Hagar’s solo catalog, you owe it to yourself to be in that room. Remaining dates are filling fast, and I am telling you from the front lines: this is one you will be talking about for years.

I have been chasing Sammy Hagar across his many incarnations for a long time now—the solo Red Rocker years, the Van Halen run, Chickenfoot, Sammy Hagar and the Waboritas, and of course Sammy Hagar and the Circle. Each version offered its own pleasures, its own personality. But what he has assembled for the Best of All Worlds Tour is genuinely something else. Anchoring the lineup alongside Hagar are four musicians who, between them, have touched virtually every corner of his legacy: bassist Michael Anthony, guitarist Joe Satriani, drummer Kenny Aronoff, and keyboardist Greg Phillinganes.

This was the third night of a six-night residency at Dolby Live, and the band arrived with the looseness and electricity of musicians who genuinely want to be exactly where they are. I made a deliberate choice on this particular evening to leave the camera behind—no lens between me and the music, no hunting for the perfect frame. Just the show. It was the right call.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The 25th Anniversary edition of Godsmack’s landmark sophomore album, Awake, is available now as a digital deluxe and on deluxe 2LP smoky-green color vinyl and CD via Republic/UMe. This commemorative edition includes a special holographic lithograph of the cover art and features five bonus tracks, including “Why,” which was featured on the Any Given Sunday soundtrack, and a Black Sabbath cover of “Sweet Leaf.”

Following their multi-platinum self-titled debut in 1998, Godsmack returned two years later in 2000 with an album that not only met but surpassed all expectations. The release delivered a powerful collection of songs that quickly became fan favorites, including “Bad Magick,” “Awake,” and “Greed,” and cemented the band’s reputation as one of the defining acts of their era. Building on the momentum of their breakthrough success, the sophomore album’s title track earned Godsmack their first Billboard No. 1 hit, while another standout single, “Vampires,” garnered the band their first GRAMMY® nomination. The reissue celebrates a defining moment in Godsmack’s career, showcasing the enduring legacy of an album that continues to resonate with fans worldwide.

Additionally, Godsmack recently announced their massive GODSMACK — THE RISE OF ROCK WORLD TOUR 2026, a sprawling North American run featuring special guests Stone Temple Pilots and Dorothy. Promoted by Live Nation, the tour will bring Godsmack’s signature high-octane live show to amphitheaters nationwide. The tour kicks off Sunday, May 10, in Bristow, VA, at Jiffy Lube Live and makes stops across the U.S. and Toronto, Canada, including Austin, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, and California, before wrapping Saturday, September 26, at Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater in Nampa, ID.

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Celebrating Michael Bruce on his 78th birthday. —Ed.

Alice Cooper, 1971; it’s almost enough to break your heart. Alice put out two LPs that year, Love It to Death and Killer, and both include a handful of incredibly great hard rockers combined with their fair share of duds, including a boring nine-minute workout on Love It to Death (“Black Juju”) and the equally coma-inducing eight-plus minute “Halo of Flies” on Killer.

I know bands were often contractually obligated to produce two LPs per annum back then, and that may or may not have had something to do with the limited number of fabulous tracks on both LPs. But imagine, just for a moment, had Alice Cooper put out just one album in 1971, an album containing the best songs from both LPs. The finished product would have been brilliant, and one of the best rock LPs of all time.

Alas, you can’t turn back the clock—if you could, I’d move it back to the glory days, when I could smoke tons of pot and not get paranoid—and we’re stuck forever with two woulda-coulda been tremendous albums marred by too many weak tracks to be called great.

As for the band, they got their start in Los Angeles on Frank Zappa’s Straight label, but following the disappointing sales of their sophomore LP (1970’s Easy Action) they up and moved to Pontiac, Michigan, where they fit in perfectly with bands like the Stooges and the MC5. Cooper himself blamed the band’s failure to make a mark in LA to drugs; “L.A. just didn’t get it,” he stated. “They were all on the wrong drug for us. They were on acid and we were basically drinking beer. We fit much more in Detroit than we did anywhere else.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “The third album from the Muscle Shoals singer-songwriter unfolds with the wariness of a social and spiritual outsider who broods his way to graceful defiance.” —NPR

Louisiana singer-songwriter Dylan LeBlanc is excited to announce a special 10th Anniversary re-release of his acclaimed album Cautionary Tale, which is due out on May 15, 2026 via Single Lock Records. To herald the announcement, he has unearthed a demo of fan-favorite track “Roll The Dice (Bedroom Demo).”

Of the song, he shares: “This is a bedroom demo from my house at the time in Nashville, Tennessee. Being young and prideful, I was trying to figure out how to manage my relationships.

‘If pride was a mountain I’d be walking tall but the valley down below is a deadly fall’ just came out because it felt like what was happening to me. There was a version of myself I wanted to be for someone else that I desperately needed to find for the first time for unselfish reasons. It’s a song about second chances.”

This month, LeBlanc is also hitting the road on a US tour, which kicks off on March 13 in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, followed by SXSW in Austin. Find all dates here.

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Progressive rock will never die, but come the eighties panicky progressive rock musicians thought it had, and it led them to do the unthinkable—produce lame, MOR, watered-down pop prog (or in some cases just pop) music that was, and I find this almost impossible to fathom, even more unbearable than the pompous prog-opuses they’d inflicted on the world through their heyday in the early to mid-seventies.

From Tales of Topographic Oceans to “Owner of a Lonely Heart”—in no kind of world could that be called an improvement, and I’d sooner shoot myself in the dick than listen to the former.

GTR never got the traction that Asia or the post-Gabriel Genesis got, and for that reason, it’s a bit easier to hear the quiet desperation—at least the prog rockers turned pop-ulists in Asia and Genesis were scoring hits and getting paid. And one reason could be that GTR held on to at least some of the tenets of progressive rock. Unfortunately, they had no knack for writing hits.

GTR–a five-piece “supergroup” featuring Yes guitarist Steve Howe and Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett (hence the band name), along with journeyman vocalist Max Bacon, sessions bassist Phil Spalding, and sometime Marillion drummer Jonathan Mover—might have seemed like a great idea, but the guitar fireworks you’d expected never happen and the songs are formulaic, generic AOR shlock.

Musician reviewer J. D. Considine’s review of GTR in Musician was both succinct and spot-on. It read, in its entirety, “SHT.” Part of the blame lies with Buggles/Yes/Asia keyboardist Geoff Downes, who produced and went out of his way to highlight the clichéd vocals of prog-everyman Bacon, who never heard a song he couldn’t overemote on. The rest of the blame lies with the songs, which sound like they were written by a committee steadfastly dedicated to writing lowest-common-denominator progressive rock-lite, Starship-meets-Asia swill.

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