Celebrating Chuck D in advance of his 65th birthday tomorrow.
—Ed.

Between 1986 and 1998, Public Enemy released six albums for Def Jam, and they’ve been gathered across nine 180-gm LPs in the 25th Anniversary Vinyl Collection. Yes, that means their knockout debut Yo! Bum Rush the Show, the explosive second installment It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, and its odds-defying follow-up Fear of a Black Planet, are all included, but perhaps the biggest insight this hefty collection holds is in how well Apocalypse 91…the Enemy Strikes Black, Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age, and the He Got Game soundtrack have endured over the years.

So much ink has been spilled over the music of Public Enemy that endeavoring to approach the subject at this remove can be more than a little daunting. Bluntly, it can seem like the possibility of adding anything new to the discourse is basically nil. In searching for fresh twists on the subject, there is a recurring problem; any attempts to shed new light upon the group’s achievements can reliably lead right back to a very familiar place.

It’s a story that relates to the severe but worthwhile lesson their music dealt to the many listeners with the curiosity to drift away from the imposed safety zones of the time. For in the ‘80s, musical tastes were quite often still segregated. And it can feel downright tired to restate how Run DMC and The Beastie Boys essentially set the table for this audience, bringing certain expectations over what exactly this fresh form of music was supposed to encompass, with PE turning up right on time to craftily pull the tablecloth out from underneath it all.

For this observer, having not even reached seventeen years of age when Public Enemy’s second album, 1988’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, tore the roof of the sucker so sweetly, rap connected largely as party music. This isn’t to belittle those achievements, of course. Sometimes the party was a generational one ala the Beasties. Run DMC, LL Cool J, and especially The Fat Boys differed somewhat, providing examples considerably less threatening to concerned parents.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats celebrate the tenth anniversary of their beloved, breakout 2015 self-titled debut album, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats this year. In commemoration, Rateliff today confirms a reissue of the record with an additional album’s worth of demo recordings, offering a glimpse at the feverish weeks of inspiration that uncovered a new form of creative expression. The reissue is set for release October 10—preorder/presave here.

A monumental album in Rateliff’s career, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats kickstarted a ride that has only accelerated in the ensuing decade with career-making moments along the way: From the band’s first appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Saturday Night Live, tours and collaborations with everyone from Paul Simon to Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, and ever-growing venue sizes from clubs to theatres to Rateliff’s beloved Red Rocks to arenas including a sold out Madison Square Garden show.

The band began at just the right time for Rateliff: after years of toiling as a more folk-leaning singer-songwriter to moderate acclaim, Rateliff was considering returning to his previous, more stable, career as a gardener. Fate intervened in the form of a song—toying with the concept of “What if Sam & Dave were in the Band?” Rateliff was inspired to write “Trying So Hard Not to Know,” a devastating yet mesmerizingly soulful confessional of romantic disillusion.

The spigot was opened and the songs poured out in the exact blend he’d imagined of bracing Stax-style R&B and richly crafted roots rock. Recording demos in his attic on GarageBand, this experimentation ultimately comprised the band’s eponymous, gold-selling 2015 debut album, which spawned four top twenty Triple A hits in “I Need Never Get Old,” “Look it Here,” “Wasting Time,” and the two-times platinum “S.O.B.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “When We Rocked isn’t just a book, it’s a loud, sweaty dive back into Philly’s rock heartbeat…” —The Brutally Delicious Podcast

This unique and first-of-its-kind telling of Philadelphia’s rise to Rock and Roll royalty is now available through March Baby Media on several major online platforms. The book focuses on Philadelphia’s musical history and diversity over the years, particularly its contributions to Rock music during the late ’70s to the early ’90s.

When We Rocked includes personal accounts from a number of Philadelphia-based artists who were interviewed for the book and explores the city’s musical evolution from its Quaker origins to the Grunge era. When We Rocked is written by author and historian Antonio Aloia and musician and The Cosmick Voice podcast host Mick Michaels with famed Philly drummer Johnny Dee (Doro/Britny Fox/Tyketto) contributing to the book’s heartfelt foreword.

“Being so close to Philadelphia, I am excited to see that the city’s respective music scenes are chronicled and encapsulated for future generations,” says co-author Aloia. “I hope that others will be inspired to share their stories and experiences that made the Philadelphia music scene unique!”

When We Rocked has been released in paperback and available on major online retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Ingram. Additionally, author-autographed copies will be available for purchase on the book’s website in August. “It’s been such a trip back through time,” says co-author Michaels. “There are always the things you remember, but it’s those things that you forgot about that are always a rush when the memories come back… there’s a lot of that in this book.”

Otis Redding only released five solo albums and one collaboration with Carla Thomas in his lifetime. Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul, his third album and second in 1965, is often regarded as his best.

In addition to including the song “Respect,” which he wrote and which became a massive hit for Aretha Franklin, the album includes one other composition by him as well as a co-write with Jerry Butler, “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” one of his other signature songs. The other two stand-out tracks that were a highlight of his live shows of the time are covers of Sam Cooke’s “Shake” and “Satisfaction,” written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.

So much of what makes the album such a stone-cold, soul classic, is that it was recorded at Stax Studios in Memphis, was supervised by Jim Stewart and engineered by Tom Dowd, and the backing band is made up of Booker T. and the MG’s as well as the Memphis Horns and backing singers William Bell and Earl Sims. There is no way to overstate just how important and integral these musicians were to the success and long-lasting influence of this album. Soul, R&B or American music from the 1960s doesn’t get much better than this. Redding would only record two more albums in his lifetime, before his tragic death in December of 1967.

The Meters were one of the legendary groups of the New Orleans music scene from the late ’60s through most of the ’70s. Along with the Neville Brothers, they helped to move the rich and singular sound of New Orleans in new directions during the rock era. The group featured Art Neville, Ziggy Modeliste, Leo Nocentelli, and George Porter Jr.

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Joe Concra is a painter, a builder, and the CO+ founder of the O+ Festival, based in Kingston, New York.

O+ is a community-rooted organization that connects artists and musicians with health and wellness care through a radical exchange model that started with an annual music and healthcare exchange festival and has expanded into year-round care.

In this episode, we talk about how it all began, what it takes to create systems of care outside of the system, and the deep link between art, service, and place. Joe’s perspective is thoughtful, kind, and rooted in lived experience.

This is a conversation about action, belief, building something meaningful from the ground up, and creating real positive change in communities.

Radar features discussions with artists and industry leaders who are creators and devotees of music and is produced by Dylan Hundley and The Vinyl District. Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer, and the co-creator and lead singer of Lulu Lewis and all things at Darling Black. She co-curates and hosts Salon Lulu which is a New York based multidisciplinary performance series. She is also a cast member of the iconic New York film Metropolitan.

Celebrating Kenny Burrell in advance of his 94th birthday tomorrow. —Ed.

In March of 1958 producer and Prestige Records owner Bob Weinstock organized a session with two up-and-comers in a very fertile scene. Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane was the result, pairing one of the most consistent guitarists in Modern Jazz with the now long renowned tenor saxophonist. It took over five years for those recordings to hit the retail racks via the Prestige subsidiary New Jazz, but the contents have been reissued numerous times since, reinforcing the high level of play. 

Kenny Burrell & John Coltrane is certainly a notable album. While Coltrane had played with guitarists before, this set is the only studio album to feature him leading (in this instance, co-leading) a band with that instrument (Wes Montgomery did join Coltrane’s sextet featuring Eric Dolphy for some West Coat live dates in 1961, even playing the Monterey Jazz Festival, but any tapes of those performances have yet to surface).

That this album sat in the vaults for half a decade will understandably lead some to assume it’s a lesser recording, but Weinstock had amassed quite a bit of Coltrane studio material while he had him under contract, sessions methodically issued as the saxophonist’s star continued to rise, often with Coltrane posthumously designated as leader.

To expand a bit, Coltrane and Burrell do play together in a sextet for three tracks on The Cats, a 1957 recording released in ’59. Issued as a leaderless date (sometimes credited to the Prestige All Stars), it sure sounds like it was conceived as a Tommy Flanagan session; the other two tracks feature the pianist in trio with bassist Doug Watkins and drummer Louis Hayes (trumpeter Idrees Sulieman completes the sextet).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | In celebration of the 40th anniversary of their US breakout album Crush, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark have announced an expanded reissue of the LP, which is out October 10 via UMR/Virgin. Today’s announcement also follows the recent 40th anniversary of their acclaimed album Junk Culture.

Originally released on June 17, 1985, the band’s sixth album Crush took OMD across the pond and became their breakthrough record Stateside. Spearheaded by the irresistible single “So In Love,” which entered the Billboard Top 40, and the radio smash “Secret,” the album received acclaim across the board and also saw success in the UK and Europe, peaking at #13 on the UK Official Album Chart. It remains a firm favorite with the band and their fans.

Working from a batch of demos, Andy and Paul, plus multi-instrumentalist Martin Cooper and drummer Malcolm Holmes, began recording Crush in Liverpool’s Amazon Studios in the late winter of 1984. Having laid down what they could in Amazon, they then relocated to the more secluded facilities of The Manor, in the heart of Oxfordshire, where they enlisted US-born producer Stephen Hague to help pull the record together.

“We felt for the first time like we needed somebody to help us focus on the production,” McCluskey says. “We were too close to these half-written songs and needed someone who could be a little bit more objective. Stephen had a very slick production sound. Maybe unconsciously, we were also thinking, ‘If we’re going to break America, we need to be a bit more polished’.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Latino is pleased to announce a 180-gram vinyl reissue of 1981’s Canciónes del Solar de Los Aburridos, the GRAMMY®-nominated album from bandleader, producer, and trumpet player Willie Colón and singer-songwriter Rubén Blades.

Marking the legendary duo’s third collaborative album, Canciónes del Solar de Los Aburridos carried on Blades’ pioneering tradition of “conscious salsa” through politically charged songs like “Tiburón,” plus such fan favorites as “Te están buscando” and “Ligia Elena.” Now freshly mastered with (AAA) lacquers cut from the original master tapes, the long-out-of-print title returns to its original format on September 19th, while fans can also stream the album in high-resolution audio—available now on select platforms. In addition, a limited-edition (only 300) “Azul Ahumado” (Blue Smoke) color vinyl variant is available exclusively at Fania’s online store, bundled with a collectible T-shirt. Both vinyl options are available for pre-order starting today.

The story of Canciónes del Solar de Los Aburridos begins more than a decade earlier with Willie Colón (b. 1950). A pioneering force in salsa music, the bandleader and trumpet player was just 15 years old when he signed to Fania Records, where he became a sensation alongside singer Héctor “El Cantante” Lavoe.

Together, the pair released 11 genre-defining albums, including 1967’s El Malo, 1970’s Cosa Nuestra, and the 1971 Christmas classic Asalto Navideño, before amicably parting ways. While Colón pursued a variety of behind-the-scenes projects as a producer, composer, arranger, and musical director, he soon found himself eager to return to the studio for his own projects—when a rising Panamanian singer-songwriter caught his ear.

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Celebrating Geddy Lee on his 72nd birthday. —Ed.

I’m here in the Jade Suite of Vancouver’s Pan Pacific Hotel, where Rush’s Geddy Lee has been conducting interviews to promote the 2020 40th Anniversary Edition of Permanent Waves. Geddy’s looking quite relaxed in his 2112-era white kimono, an Alexandrite pendant of the Egyptian God Ra around his neck. He’s sipping a cup of Da Hong Pao tea, attention riveted on some fishing show on what looks to be 900-inch television, and the first words he utters are, “Professional fishing. Who knew that was even a thing?” He pauses for a spoonful of Beluga caviar, then adds, “Fellow in the funny cap just pulled in a muskellunge. I’m no expert, but it looks to be a 59-pounder.” This is as good a place as any to begin the interview.

Do you fish?

Gave it a try once. Caught a walleye, and the damn thing attacked me. I meant to release him, but he had no intention of returning the favor.

You sound nothing like you do on stage. I might as well be talking to Barry White. How do you sing the way you do?

It’s quite simple, really. We toured with this gargantuan roadie whose only job it was to kick me in the balls before I went on stage.

Didn’t it hurt?

You can’t imagine. It was all I can do not to play the show doubled over in pain. I basically owe the man my career. But I had to let him go when he started nutting me as I was coming off stage as well. Overjealous, he was,

1980’s Permanent Waves marked a great departure from its predecessors. The songs are shorter, for instance.

They are, and I can tell you why. Someone handed me a copy of Never Mind the Bollocks, and I knew immediately this was the direction we needed to take.

So Permanent Waves was your punk rock statement.

Sure. We wanted the songs to be quick punches to the throat of uptight society. We originally intended to call the album Anarchy in the Great White North.

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Celebrating Jimmy Cliff in advance of his 81st birthday tomorrow.
—Ed.

The phenomenon of the Comeback Album used to be a cringe inducing occurrence, largely because the results would succeed far too frequently in simply getting it wrong. However, as a testament to human development the last few decades have seen a gradual increase in actually getting it right. Happily, Jimmy Cliff’s Rebirth falls onto the successful side of the comeback street, mainly because it picks a smart strategy and then sticks with it. Modestly scaled, it would be hyperbole to call it a true return to form, but it does prove that Mr. Cliff still has the goods.

Yes, the road to a wickedly hot musical eternity is paved with good intentions. No musician deliberately sets out to make a record that’s truly, non-ironically bad, after all. And nobody that loves The Shaggs’ Philosophy of the World, a record often cited by journalists scribing for list-happy magazines or websites as one of the Worst of All Time (a musical cousin to Ed Wood’s film Plan 9 From Outer Space essentially), I mean sincerely values it as a musical document and not as the aural equivalent to a velvet painting, would describe it as a “bad” record. And the Wiggins’ Sisters sure as hell weren’t trying to make music that would fall under the (admittedly ambiguous) definition of “bad”.

Again, back in the day comeback records were often just filthy with benevolent intentions. Somebody with contacts in the industry couldn’t shake the nagging insistence that it would be a great idea if a certain artist or band got back into the studio with the aim of recapturing the special magic that for numerous reasons had been lost; maybe the act was a huge commercial entity that somehow lost their way, perhaps a cult musician or group getting a belated push after being afflicted with indifference, or possibly just a name that was around for so long that total disfavor befell them on the road to inevitable rediscovery.

Whatever the circumstance, everything usually moves along rather sweetly until someone has the bright idea to bring in that dude who played bass for a week with Paul Shaffer in The World’s Most Dangerous Band. Things quickly deteriorate from there, and then it’s all over except for the hell and the hand baskets.

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TERRE HAUTE, IN | On one of the stickiest, sweatiest nights of the summer—complete with a full-blown heat advisory—The Mill in Terre Haute brought the fire in more ways than one. Nestled along the Wabash River, this massive outdoor venue played host to a night of country swagger, songwriting chops, and pure crowd energy that didn’t let the heat win.

Kicking things off was Redferrin, who came in hot—literally and figuratively. A songwriter with grit and edge, he got the crowd moving early, laying down a high-energy set that made it clear he’s not just a name in the liner notes. Next up was Ernest, another songwriter-turned-performer who’s written hits for just about everybody in country music. He brought smooth vocals, humor, and a laid-back cool that somehow made the 90-degree swamp air feel bearable.

As the sun finally started to dip below the horizon (thank God), Old Dominion took the stage and brought the kind of polished, radio-hit-fueled set that reminded everyone why they’re headlining amphitheaters. They cruised through fan favorites, had the crowd singing every word, and genuinely looked like they were having just as much fun as the audience. The breeze off the Wabash finally kicked in, and it turned into one of those perfect summer concert moments—sweaty, loud, and unforgettable.

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