VIA PRESS RELEASE | Yungblud. Are You Ready, Boy?, the new documentary film featuring the globally recognized British artist Yungblud, will receive its worldwide theatrical release with screenings on August 20 and 24, courtesy of Trafalgar Releasing. Visit Yungblud.film to find out more, sign up for updates, and get tickets when they go on sale on July 17.

The feature-length documentary, directed by three-time Grammy Award-nominated, Emmy® and BAFTA-winning filmmaker Paul Dugdale (Adele: One Night Only, Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium, The Prodigy ‘Worlds on Fire’, Glastonbury Festival: Live at Worthy Farm) was shot at the legendary Hansa Studios Building in Berlin, the birthplace of David Bowie’s Heroes, U2’s Achtung Baby! and countless other iconic albums.

A personal journey of change, confidence, and rock-and-roll chaos, set against a city that has always celebrated counterculture and creativity, Yungblud. Are You Ready, Boy? is a revealing and uncompromising documentary about a generational artist finding his own voice.

Presented in B&W and colour, including stunning sequences shot in 16mm, the two-hour-long documentary shows Yungblud at a pivotal moment in his career. The film follows the artist as he relocates to the historic Berlin studio with his band to record live performances of tracks from his brand-new album, Idols, for the very first time. His most personal record to date, Idols was released in June 2025 to critical acclaim, becoming Yungblud’s third consecutive no. 1 album in the UK.

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O. my. What have we got here? Just a baritone saxophonist and a drummer, and enough effects pedals to make his saxophone sound like a goddamn machine gun and her drums sound like a German King Tiger tank.

The duo is called O. and they hail from the vibrant South London jazz scene. Saxophonist Joe Henwood and drummer Tash Keary met, clicked, and thought it would be a wonderful idea to expand the sonic possibilities of their instruments through a bank of effects pedals while infusing their jazz with elements of heavy metal, dub, electronica, and God only knows what else.

The results are nothing less than astounding. You can listen to their songs and never guess there’s a baritone sax in there. You hear the drums, but they’re doing things no one would have thought possible. Just check out “Green Shirt” from their debut LP, 2024’s WeirdOs. I dare you!

I was first introduced to them by means of their 2023 EP “Slice,” and I actually prefer it to WeirdOs, if only because it offers solid evidence of their jazz bona fides. That might seem to be an odd reason to prefer “Slice,” given O.’s predilection for moving as far from jazz as is humanly possible, but there you go. The song “ATM” ISN’T “Green Shirt” but it’s something every bit as great—jazz as played by two top-notch jazz musicians.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | On the 50th anniversary of its original release, the self-titled album has been certified 9x platinum by the RIAA. In celebration, Rhino announces two new premium audio editions of Fleetwood Mac, the 1975 album that ushered in a new era for the band. On August 8, the album will debut in Dolby Atmos and arrive on vinyl as part of the Rhino High Fidelity series of high-end reissues.

The Blu-ray Audio edition features a new Dolby ATMOS mix by Chris James, delivering a fully immersive experience of this classic album. It also includes a 5.1 surround mix by original producer Ken Caillat and Claus Trelby. Fleetwood Mac (Rhino High Fidelity) was mastered by Kevin Gray, cut directly from the original analog master tapes, and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Optimal. Available exclusively at Rhino.com and internationally at select WMG stores, the album is limited to 5,000 individually numbered copies. A special version (limited to 2,000 copies) will also be available that includes two replica 7-inch singles featuring the single mixes of “Over My Head” b/w “Rhiannon” and “Say You Love Me” b/w “Blue Letter.” Pre-order HERE.

Released on July 11, 1975, Fleetwood Mac was the band’s tenth studio album and the second named after the group, sharing its title with their 1968 debut. Often referred to by fans as “The White Album,” it also introduced Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks into the group’s core lineup, joining Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Christine McVie. The chemistry between the five was immediate—and transformative. The album’s sound marked a break from the band’s blues-based roots, pivoting toward a melodic, harmony-rich approach that would come to define a generation of FM radio.

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Celebrating Peter Murphy on his 68th birthday. —Ed.

I’ve never been much of a gothic rock fan. Why? For starters, I’m not deceased. Bela Lugosi may be dead, but I’m not. And I’ve never been big on humorless doom and gloom types. You know, the ones who spend their spare weekends looking into crypt rentals.

But Bauhaus, different story. A jagged-edged post-punk band with a guitarist who played barb wire, Bauhaus eschewed gothic atmospherics in favor of dissonance, feedback, and raw power. What’s more, there was nothing sepulchral about he-of-the-prominent-cheekbones Peter Murphy’s voice; he’s very much alive, and proof that the quick and the dead needn’t be two different animals.

1986’s 1979-1983 Volume One is more than just a compilation of a pioneering Goth rock band; it’s a landmark of the post-punk era, and demonstrates why Bauhaus’ music continues to inspire and influence a wide variety of musical artists. Rarely will you find a compilation without a weak track on it, but Bauhaus pulls it off with their voodoo potion of punk, dub reggae, and what can only be described as noise rock. (“Double Dare” sounds more like a song by Cows than one of Bauhaus’ English contemporaries.) It was this mélange of influences that led Murphy to describe Bauhaus as “more aligned to the Clash than anything else that was going around.”

On LP opener axe ace Daniel Ash and David J’s fuzzed-out bass produce a wall of distorted noise over a submarine ping and Murphy’s baritone vocal. I always think of goth rock vocals as cadaver chilly, but Murphy’s veer on spontaneous human combustion. He also comes close to self-immolation on the breakneck “St. Vitus Dance,” spitting out his words before breaking into some staccato screaming and a swell monkey imitation.

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Lulu Lewis is the NYC synth-pop duo of Dylan Hundley and Pablo Martin. They’ve released a pair of albums and a handful of EPs, singles, and remixes since joining forces and today they are premiering another track, “Sinner,” ahead of the summer edition of their Salon Lulu event series, which takes place this Sunday July 13 from 2-6pm at the club Berlin in Manhattan. There will be live performances by Liz Lamere and Lulu Lewis, Julia Gorton’s short film “Stacked Deck” and a hands-on boutique of locally made musical equipment named Gear Weird. “Sinner” is up to Lulu Lewis’ high electro-dance standard; check it out below, and if you’re local, do drop by Salon Lulu on Sunday. It’s sure to be a stone gas.

There is consistency in the sound of Lulu Lewis, but the music is solid enough in conception to allow room to branch out. Since formation, the duo (who often welcome guest contributors; for “Sinner” it’s Bruce Martin on bongos and bell) has offered a collection of dub remixes and a covers EP featuring songs by Roxy Music, John Cale, and Funkadelic, to name two offramps from the main stylistic freeway.

Courtesy of the opening synths, “Sinner” has a dark, tense cinematic edge; that is, it sounds like a pop song that was cut to accompany a film, in this case, a low-budget, high-energy action flick set on the streets of the old, dangerous NYC. The lyrics and Hundley’s vocal suggest a woman who has lost her faith (or never had it) and is out doing the dirty but necessary work of seeking justice and getting revenge.

We’re talking shades of Zoe Lund in Abel Ferrara’s Ms. 45 and even the great Gena Rowlands in her hubby John Cassavetes’ Gloria, but we’re deeper into the 1980s with shades of a Golan Globus-esque exploitation vibe. The song is a bold synth-pop affair, but with a subtle rock undercurrent from Martin’s guitars. Hundley sings like someone who landed an unexpected opportunity and is making the very best of it by giving her all. Retaining a bit of that dub flair in the song is a sweet touch. If “Sinners” did land on the soundtrack to an ’80s action film, the song would very likely be the best thing about it.

PHOTO: JACKIE LEE YOUNG | I recently sat down with my former bandmate and friend, Jay Mumford. Jay’s career as a session and touring drummer has paired him with artists across multiple genres.

From Hermanos Gutierrez, to Danger Mouse, Lulu Lewis, Adrian Quesada, Vampire Weekend, Just Blaze, Dan Auerbach, Greyhounds, Madlib, Michael Kiwanuka, and many more. He’s also a co-founder and shares producer and songwriter duties with Pablo Martin (my partner) for their funk outfit, The Du-Rites.

Jay is on tour with Adrian Quesada with dates in August and September and played on Quesada’s Boleros Psicodelicos 2, which dropped June 27th on ATO Records.

There’s a new EP, “Tenement,” from The Du-Rites dropping this fall, and he’s back in the studio with Amsterdam-based keyboardist, producer, and arranger, Soul Supreme, working on new material. I recommend heading over to his Instagram to stay in the loop.

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.

“Never in a million fucking years,” barks Big Special frontman Joe Hicklin in a thick Black Country accent, “Did I think I’d ever see your fucking face again!” Thus begins the explosive “Shithouse,” one of the most dazzling slices of pure invective to come out of an England that seems to be producing angry (and dazzlingly articulate) young men by the dozens.

Big Special are West Midlands duo Hicklin and drummer Callum Moloney, proud proles ranters and ravers dissecting the grim futility of life in that part of England that brought us the Industrial Revolution with songs that combine the blues, soul, spoken word, electronica, and rock, and are always bitingly, poetically funny.

The pair first played together more than a decade ago, but it wasn’t until Covid lockdown that they got together again and things clicked, leading to a critic-approved trio of EPs, the last of which, 2023’s “Trees,” is truly special. Big Special has since released two full-lengths (including the brand-spanking new National Average. (yes, with the period), but “Trees” is something truly extraordinary, and makes for the perfect, distilled-to-the-band’s-barking-angry-essence starting point for folks who want to suss out what all the fuss is about.

Big Special eschew the minimalism of a band they’re often compared to, the Midlands duo Sleaford Mods, preferring a wider palette, but the two bands definitely share a worldview—something’s rotten in the state of England, and the shite is definitely flowing the workingman’s way. “Trees” has it all—geezers smoking crack in the lobby, desperate breakfasts, the reek of petrol fumes, and all the futile quotidian carrying on of hopeless geezers “standing on a history of factory fodder.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | A Certain Ratio has announced details of the latest release in their reissue campaign: Live in America, a 10-track album that captures the exuberance of their 1985 tour of America. It will be out on vinyl, CD, and digitally on August 8, 2025, via Mute.

Originally available as a self-released cassette the band sold on tour the following year, the album compiles performances from ACR’s summer 1985 tour of North America with then (and current!) labelmates New Order when both artists were on Factory Records. The line-up documented on the album consists of Andrew Connell – keyboards, Donald Johnson – drums and vocals, Jez Kerr – bass and vocals, Martin Moscrop – guitar and trumpet, and Anthony Quigley – sax. That same lineup went on to release Force the following year, shortly before Connell left to concentrate on Swing Out Sister.

The band’s sheer joy in their performance is evidenced across the release, charting what sounded like an intense tour across North America only a few years into their career. They explain: “The tour was fun and we were very well looked after by New Order and especially Rob Gretton, New Order’s manager. Rob always made sure that we were well fed and watered and would fulfill any request we had. Sometimes the promoters wouldn’t want us to eat in the same swanky restaurants as New Order due to costs and because we were the ‘warm up’ act. When this happened Rob would just tell them that he would pay for ACR. He watched our performances every night and gave us his opinion on how he thought it went. He was one of our biggest fans, and we miss him dearly.”

Live in America was recorded at: Felt Forum, NYC; Opera House, Boston; Agora Theatre, Akron; Bismarck Theater, Chicago, and Warner Theatre, Washington DC. A Certain Ratio Live in America is available on August 8, 2025 on vinyl, CD and limited cassette. Pre-order HERE.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Many artists complain bitterly when they find their music being bootlegged—think of that famous footage (available on YouTube) of Neil Young walking into a Hollywood record store in 1971 to discover an unauthorized live album sitting on the shelves!

Melanie felt the same way. The latter part of her career was positively plagued by fans trading, selling, and posting online her unreleased out-takes and live shows, a flood that ultimately led her to authorize the wholesale emptying of her archive by Cleopatra Records for a marathon series of releases and bonus track-stacked reissues. But she also regretted never having been “properly” bootlegged—that is, having a concert pressed on vinyl, slipped into a plain white sleeve with photocopied art gummed to the front, given a bizarre title, and sold through the underground network of mom-and-pop stores that once proliferated. So we did it for her.

From The Banks of the River Effra—Crystal Palace 1972 was recorded at the Crystal Palace Garden Party in London and is released today resplendent with its own bootleg-style art insert, white label, and suitably obscure title. The River Effra is one of London’s so-called “lost rivers,” flowing through the area now occupied by the Crystal Palace site.

The gig was a truly heavyweight occasion. Melanie was a festival veteran by now; Woodstock in 1969 was followed by the Isle Of Wight Festival in 1970, Glastonbury Fayre and the Montreux Jazz Festival (also available from Cleopatra Records) in 1971, and many more.

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Remembering Ronnie James Dio, born on this day in 1942. —Ed.

There are 666 things you need to know about Ronnie James Dio.

1. Ronnie is widely credited as having invented the “Sign of the Horns.” Under patent law, you are legally obliged to pay Ronnie 15 cents every time you use it. Per hand.

2. Fact: In 2003 Dio lost part of his thumb to what he called a “killer garden gnome.” Afterwards Ronnie tossed the gnome in the trash, but it kept coming back. “It’s out there,” he would tell friends, peeking out the window. “Waiting. Just waiting.”

3. Ronnie was a big medieval music fan and used to get together with former Rainbow band mate and fellow medievalist Ritchie Blackmore to play flute, sing madrigals, and contract the Black Plague.

4. In a 1991 poll kindergartners were asked what historical personage they would least want to see added to the cast of Sesame Street. Ronnie James Dio came in next to last, just before Adolf Hitler.

5. Ronnie, who was 5′ 4″, was once quoted as saying, “I always wanted to be a basketball player.” He then added, “Preferably with the Delaware Dwarves.”

6. Dio’s first band was called Elf. The name led to a revolt in the Elven community. Haldir, Elf of Lothlórien, told his troops, “We must crush the man on the Misty Mountain before he joins Black Sabbath and lays waste to the band that bequeathed us “Fairies Wear Boots.”

7. The biggest difference between Dio and his predecessor in Black Sabbath was that Dio didn’t have a serious ant addiction.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “On April 1, 1995, I attended the Lighthouse Surf Band Reunion in Hermosa Beach. Having just moved to L.A. from the East Coast, I was still fascinated by Southern California’s ‘Kustom Kulture’—Rat Fink, George Barris, Fender guitars, and surf music. Surf tunes like ‘Wipeout’ and ‘Pipeline’ were the first songs I really learned to play, so this music has always been close to my heart. Seeing The Chantays, The Surfaris, Davie Allan, and others live was unforgettable—a memory I’ll always cherish. These sounds take us back to a simpler, more carefree time of cars, girls, beaches, and of course, SURF MUSIC!” —Elliot Easton, The Cars

On April 1, 1995, an unforgettable celebration of surf music history took place at the iconic Lighthouse Café in Hermosa Beach. Now, for the first time, this remarkable event will be available on vinyl, CD, and digital for fans around the world to experience. Legends of Surf Guitar captures a pivotal moment when original surf pioneers and revivalists joined forces to celebrate the music that defined a generation.

In the late 1970s and early ’80s, a new wave of surf instrumental revival bands—including Jon & The Nightriders, The Surf Raiders, The Malibooz, Los Straightjackets, and others—reignited interest in the genre, setting the stage for events like this. Building on the momentum from films like Pulp Fiction and a surge of surf-centric radio shows, producer/radio host Les Perry and surf legend Paul Johnson organized the Lighthouse Surf Band Reunion, creating a once-in-a-lifetime musical homecoming.

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