VIA PRESS RELEASE | SING, a music technology company and label, selling music from major artists and catalogs as vinyl/digital hybrid releases to super-fans, announced today that a limited edition (of 2,000) 5LP vinyl box set of previously unreleased and rare live radio performances by “The Voice”—Frank Sinatra—is available now for pre-order. Entitled Long Ago, Far Away, the set features some of the rarest, most sought-after Frank Sinatra recordings in history. These releases will not be available at traditional retail outlets, SING will host exclusive access to these releases online.

This limited edition box set follows on the heels of SING’s first Frank Sinatra title, At The Hollywood Bowl 1943–1948 which is now available on both vinyl and CD. Long Ago, Far Away, consists of live recordings and radio broadcasts recorded between 1943 and 1951. Long Ago, Far Away is available direct from SING MARKET and At The Hollywood Bowl is available directly on LP here and CD here. SING also plans to release an additional title leading up to the holiday season, Christmas on the Air. Full details on that release will be announced shortly.

SING spared no expense on extensive audio restoration campaign for these projects from original broadcast sources to give fans the best fidelity possible. Paired with a deluxe booklet featuring expert liner notes, rare photos, and vintage memorabilia, every set is unique—each vinyl record is visually distinct, ensuring no two are alike. Take a listen here.

“What SING has done with these mono broadcast recordings is nothing short of revolutionary—and remarkable,” says world-renowned Sinatra expert and author Charles L. Granata. “Engineer Harry Hess has taken the vintage sonics to an entirely new level by using professional AI tools to separate Sinatra’s voice from the orchestra, clean it, and raise the volume and re-integrate it with the instrumental backing so it has more presence and stands more prominently at the forefront of the recording.

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New Zealand lo-fi trailblazers Tall Dwarfs aren’t a band—as their 1985 compilation The Short & Sick of It (on legendary Flying Nun Records) shows, they have a lot in common with St. Petersburg, Florida, teenager and short-wave radio enthusiast Betty Klenck, who heard Amelia Earhart calling for help from half a world away in early July 1937.

Which is to say they’re pulling in sounds from far, far away. Or perhaps it would be better to say Tall Dwarfs ARE a short wave radio, one that picks up melodies that are bouncing around in the ether, fugitive, fleeting, just waiting for someone to transcribe them the way young Betty Klenck took careful notes of Earhart’s distress calls in her diary.

In this, Tall Dwarfs have a lot in common with Guided by Voices’ Robert Pollard, who seems like more of a receiver than a songwriter. There are melodies floating around out there, and there are artists who are tuned into whatever mystical frequency you can hear them on. Tall Dwarfs are a stranger proposition than Guided by Voices, less a traditional rock and roll band, but the analogy stands.

Tall Dwarfs are Chris Knox and Alex Bathgate, and to say their bailiwick is cool melodies is to limit them, as you can hear on The Short & Sick of It, which compiles one single and one EP. They do all kinds of things; one of the coolest songs on the LP is “Get Outta the Garage,” a blast of fuzzed-out punk garage that has some Beatles in its DNA. And jokers that they are, following track “Scrapbook” picks up where “Getta Outta My Garage” lets off (although the lyrics are different) before it morphs into a lovely acoustic guitar workout that sounds like, well, it was received from some secret corner of the galaxy where fugitive Beatles melodies float around, waiting to be picked up by the human ham radio that is Tall Dwarfs.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Jad Fair & Yo La Tengo announced a reissue of their often-overlooked and rare gem of a record, Strange But True, due out via Joyful Noise Recordings and Bar/None Records on December 12th, 2025. The album will be available on vinyl, CD, and all digital platforms. Along with this announcement, the group also shared a single “Texas Man Abducted by Aliens for Outer Space Joyride,” which is now available for the very first time on streaming.

In the ’90s, Jad Fair had five favorite bands and songwriters: Daniel Johnston, The Pastels, Sonic Youth, Teenage Fanclub, and Yo La Tengo. It’s a good list, sure, but what’s most remarkable about it is that, in the course of a dozen years or so, Fair made music with all of them in one form or another. In some cases, a kindred spirit recognized one of its own; in most cases, it was because the work Fair had created with his brother, David, in Half Japanese since the ’70s, or before the term indie rock really existed, had inspired a successive cohort that helped to define it.

“Anyone who hears that stuff,” Yo La Tengo’s James McNew told The Wire in 2000, “it’ll change their life.” In the same interview, Ira Kaplan remembered hearing the band’s Half Gentlemen/Not Beasts upon its release and being floored. The way Yo La Tengo made music, he said, owed a lot to Jad and David Fair.

Thing is, Jad Fair has been prolific for half a century now, long before the Internet could create a simultaneous and seemingly eternal archive of everything someone with his predilections made. He’s been involved in several hundred titles, at least, many of them out-of-print on tiny labels that do not exist anymore. In fact, one of those collaborations that Fair made in the ’90s—Strange But True, with Yo La Tengo—has been hard to find, despite its stateside release on October 20th 1998, by Matador Records. For the first time, the album is being reissued on vinyl by Joyful Noise and Bar/None.

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Remembering Chuck Berry in advance of his birthdate tomorrow.
—Ed.

The passing of Chuck Berry—whose contributions to rock’n’roll surpass those of Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, hell Jerry Lee Lewis even—is a sad event for anybody who has ever fallen in love with the sound of a Gibson ES-350T. Berry did more than just produce many of the most iconic songs of rock’n’roll, he was instrumental in the invention of rock ’n’ roll itself, which makes him more important than Nicola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and the Wright Brothers put together. And you can toss Johannes Gutenberg onto the pile if you want.

Berry had it all. Mad songwriting skills that focused on teen culture, a great voice, a unique approach to playing the guitar, and a mastery of stagecraft that is best exemplified by his famous duck walk. How influential was Berry? Well, John Lennon once said, “If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry.’” And none other than Bob Dylan pronounced Berry “the Shakespeare of rock ‘n’ roll.”

All of that said, you would think it’d be easy to find a great compilation of Berry’s best songs. Not so. Some of the massive compilations—such as 1988’s The Chess Box, 2000’s The Anthology, 2007’s Johnny B. Goode/His Complete ‘50s Chess Recordings, and the compilations of his post-peak Chess Records years are freighted with either numerous alternative takes and filler or both—which is fine if you’re the type of person who loves outtakes and filler, which I’m not—while others inexplicably omit songs I simply can’t live without.

Take the 1982 Chess Records compilation The Great Twenty-Eight, for example. It includes most of the songs Berry is best remembered for, and omits to include the embarrassingly infantile “My Ding-a-Ling,” but I simply find it impossible to forgive the omission of “You Never Can Tell,” which is perhaps my favorite Berry song.

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A whole buncha reasons why you should never turn your back on heavy metal pioneers Budgie, the primary one being (before I even get to the list!) you never know if the Welsh power trio are going to awe you with greatness or stick an unlistenable song in your back.

1. Budgie came up with some of the greatest song titles ever. “Breaking All the House Rules and Learning All the House Rules.” “Nude Disintegrating Parachute Woman.” “Crash Course in Brain Surgery.” “Hot as a Docker’s Armpit.” “Homicidal Suicidal.” “I Can’t See My Feelings.” Once you’ve seen vocalist/bassist Burke Shelley’s Coke-bottle-thick glasses, you’ll understand why!

2. You won’t find any of these songs on 1973’s Never Turn Your Back on a Friend. It was the third of the ten studio albums the band would release between 1971 and 1982, and unlike their eponymous 1971 debut, 1974’s In for the Kill, and 1975’s Bandolier, it did not make it into Chuck Eddy’s Stairway to Hell: The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe. But that means nothing. As Eddy admitted to yours truly, he compiled his list using only the albums in his personal record collection, and I suspect he didn’t own a copy of Never Turn Your Back on a Friend. It also doesn’t mean much when you consider Eddy put Teena Marie’s 1986 dance record, Emerald City, at Number 9 on his list. Eddy’s a great writer, but he’s also full of shit.

3. Burke Shelley sings like a budgie. Budgies mimic human speech. Burke mimicked budgie speech. He kinda sounds like Geddy Lee with a bad cold. There are far more annoying vocalists out there, but maybe if Burke had seen better, he’d have sung better—he obviously couldn’t see what he was singing. Eddy, ever the poet, describes Burke’s vox as “squeaky, angelic as your long-lost cigar-chomping Serbo-Croatian grandpa.” No, I have no idea what that means either. To me, Burke just sounds like a simp, although he’s hardly the first simp to front a hard rock/heavy metal band.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Exactly 40 years to the day since it was first released, BMG are pleased to announce a brand new, beautifully packaged, limited collectors 2LP color vinyl edition of Iron Maiden’s classic album Live After Death.

Featuring the original revered gatefold sleeve artwork, the album comes with two 140g LPs (one in blue, the other in yellow) featuring the 2015 audio remastering. The package also includes a replica 24-page World Slavery Tour program, bringing back to life the original tour program for new generations.

Additionally the vinyl features a replica tour pass and a glossy 12-page booklet, which contains the original eight-page booklet alongside an exclusive and brand-new essay entitled Rime And Punishment: Celebrating 40 Years Of Live After Death, where Iron Maiden fan club editor Alexander Milas interviews Steve Harris, Nicko McBrain, Rod Smallwood, and illustrator Derek Riggs about the legendary album.

As Steve Harris explains of the time, “We were touring our arses off. It was literally just, ‘record, tour, record, tour’—we didn’t stop. Rod was cracking the old whip, and that was the right thing to do. I mean, we were totally up for it, it’s not like we were doing stuff that we didn’t want to do. You think you’re invincible—‘Yeah, we’ll take that on, no problem.’ That’s the way to crack it. It’s the only way for a band like us because we had no radio play whatsoever back then.”

Widely acclaimed as not just the greatest heavy metal live album of all time, but one of the most iconic live releases in any musical genre, Live After Death was recorded mostly during the four nights that Maiden played at Los Angeles’ Long Beach Arena in March 1985. The final side of the double album was recorded during the four nights the band played at Hammersmith Odeon in October 1984.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Emmylou Harris will release Spyboy on November 7, 2025 via New West Records. The 19-track live album was produced by Buddy Miller and Emmylou Harris and features Miller on guitar and vocals, Brady Blade on drums, percussion, and vocals, and Daryl Johnson on bass, djembe, percussion, and vocals as well.

Originally issued on compact disc by Eminent Records in 1998, the 2025 edition of Spyboy features 5 previously unreleased recordings of the band performing Tom Petty & the Heartbreaker’s “Thing About You,” Bob Dylan’s “Every Grain of Sand,” Bill Monroe’s “Get Up John,” Lucinda Williams’ “Sweet Old World,” as well as the Harris and Kate & Anna McGarrigle co-write “All I Left Behind.” It also features updated artwork as well as new and updated liner notes written by Harris and Miller. A limited pressing of Spyboy was made available in celebration of Record Store Day in May and quickly sold out.

Spyboy grew out of Wrecking Ball, Harris’ groundbreaking 1995 collaboration with the producer Daniel Lanois. That album, among her best and most celebrated, offers a very different idea of what country music could be, how it might sound and move. “It was such a sonic departure for me,” says Harris. “When we were making the record, I was thinking: Okay, I love this, but how am I going to play it? I’d had the Hot Band and then I’d had my bluegrass band, the Nash Ramblers.

I loved playing with them, but I knew this was different.” For the subsequent tour, Lanois temporarily played guitar (before being replaced by Miller), and brought in bassist Daryl Johnson and drummer Brady Blade. In 1996 and 1997 they toured America and Europe together, never playing a song the same way twice. “It was really something to be on that stage every night with that band and that energy,” Harris says.

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Remembering Nico, born on this day in 1938. —Ed.

Everybody, or so it seems, loves Teutonic chanteuse Nico’s absolutely enchanting 1967 debut solo album Chelsea Girl–except Nico. In 1981 she said, “I asked for simplicity, and they covered it in flutes! They added strings and–I didn’t like them, but I could live with them. But the flutes! The first time I heard the album, I cried and it was all because of the flute.”

“They” were Velvet Underground producer Tom Wilson and arranger Larry Fallon, and as should be obvious from the above quote they sugar-frosted Chelsea Girl without so much as asking for Nico’s by your live.

Nico may have been crestfallen about Chelsea Girl, but generations of listeners have been bewitched by her hauntingly droning approach to songs by the likes of the young Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, Tim Hardin, and (of course) her former Velvet Underground bandmates Lou Reed, John Cale, and Sterling Morrison. These songs are as coldly tender as a Baltic Sea wind blowing through the pines of Spreewald Forest where Nico spent her childhood war years, watching the flickering lights of Allied bombers devastating Berlin on the horizon.

The veddy veddy German Nico (aka Christa Päffgen) is certainly one of the most distinctive vocalists you’ll ever run across; my East German ex-Frau lost her accent within a year or so of leaving the Deutschland, but the ex-model, Warhol actress, and member of his Exploding Plastic Inevitable’s accent remained every bit as thick as the walls of Hitler’s bunker, making her without a doubt the frostiest Ice Queen in the history of modern pop music.

But Nico’s frigid vocals are warmed up by this collection of winsome songs; with the exception of the eerily beautiful (and vaguely Middle Eastern sounding) “It Was a Pleasure Then” (on which Reed and Cale bring to bear the all of the dissonant powers they displayed on “European Son”) “Chelsea Girls,” and Hardin’s “Eulogy to Lenny Bruce” the tunes are fetching, and the Wilson-Fallon strings and flute overlay gives the LP an accessible, chamber pop sheen. Which, of course, Nico despised.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Fresh bright moments will be added to the discography of the extraordinary Rahsaan Roland Kirk with Resonance Records’ November 28 release of Seek & Listen: Live at the Penthouse, a two-LP set of jubilant previously unreleased 1967 performances by the jazz genius.

The Kirk package, an exclusive RSD Black Friday release produced in cooperation with Dorthaan Kirk of the musician’s estate and Jim Wilke and Charlie Puzzo, Jr., of the Penthouse, continues a long association between the Seattle club the Penthouse and Resonance co-president and album producer Zev Feldman, who has issued hitherto unheard albums by Les McCann, the Three Sounds, and Wes Montgomery and the Wynton Kelly Trio on the label. Sonically restored and remastered by Matthew Lutthans at the Mastering Lab, Seek & Listen was pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Le Vinylist in Quebec, Canada. The album will also be released on CD on December 5.

The collection finds Kirk in typically freewheeling and ebullient form, blazing through a generous set of originals like “Now Please Don’t You Cry Beautiful Edith” and interpretations ranging from an expansive Duke Ellington medley to Bobbie Gentry’s then-recent hit “Ode to Billie Joe.” His astounding double-blowing playing and circular breathing technique on an arsenal of horns is supported by pianist and longtime accompanist Rahn Burton, bassist Steve Novosel, and drummer Jimmy Hopps.

The Resonance release includes extensive notes on the date by Kirk biographer John Kruth, recollections from Novosel and trombonist Steve Turre, reflections on the musician’s career by saxophonists James Carter and Chico Freeman, and more. Feldman says, “For years, whenever I’ve wanted to listen to some Rahsaan Roland Kirk, I’ve put on these recordings, which I heard for the first time around 2010 or 2011, when I first started speaking with Jim and Charlie. They are full of so much energy, passion and charisma that Rashaan magically creates. It is playing at a monumentally high level.”

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Side projects can be a mixed bag, but Darling Black, the bonus activity/creativity of Lulu Lewis vocalist-songwriter Dylan Hundley, is unburdened with any disappointing, underwhelming factors. Instead, the truly solo endeavor’s eponymous debut full-length, releasing tomorrow as a Bandcamp exclusive and premiering here, is consistently engaging with the occasional surprise. Anybody with a penchant for post-punk dancefloor bangers should prick up those ears, toot sweet.

Darling Black isn’t a breakaway project but instead serves as a stylistic extension and more often is a complementary overlapper in the oeuvre of Dylan Hundley. “Shock” opens the record with a fun slice of resourced audio, and then, quickly following, Hundley’s breathy intoning enters the scheme atop a minimal groove.

With “8th and Alvarado,” things get edgy and body moving in the tradition of dance club No Wave. The mention of champagne and cocaine can’t help but bring Vega and Rev to mind (not a bad thing), but with the infusion of police sirens, the track radiates a more contemporary vibe.

“Everyday” floats out Kraftwerk-y Motorik motions, but with a sweet, tense atmosphere a la darkwave. Rhythmic repetition is also an integral component in “Dial,” and there’s more of that aforementioned and quite appealing post-punk edge. Instead of NYC No Wave, the track is decidedly Anglo.

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