Suzi Ronson is a stylist, writer, musician, and the woman who helped shape one of the most iconic eras in music, first by co-creating David Bowie’s groundbreaking look for Ziggy Stardust.

Her memoir Me and Mr. Jones describes this along with the wild and interesting journey she shared as a part of the core group of people who propelled Bowie and themselves into history without expecting it. Suzi and I spoke about these times, her career, life with her husband Mick Ronson, and the aftermath of the Spiders from Mars ending.

This episode is unvarnished and human, as we like to keep Radar. Bowie was no saint, but we all love him, including Suzi, who tells her tales of these times from a deeply clear-eyed place.

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.

Bill Fisher, founder of Nottingham, England’s Church of the Cosmic Skull, has called the band a “twofold entity: a new religious movement … and a 7-piece supergroup.” What do you make of that? I’ll tell you what I make of it, having listened to said twofold entity–Church of the Cosmic Skull are by turns majestic and hilarious, bring back the glory days of seventies’ American progressive pop, and in general are the most transcendentally joyous thing to come along since “Dust in the Wind.”

Church of the Cosmic Skull are campy, write great pop songs with great pop hooks, dress in white robes like angels, and sing like angels too. They sound like a cross of Styx, Kansas, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, and Abba. They make uproarious videos and pose on spaceships and live in the past and the future at the same time, which is what great progressive pop has always been about.

They also know how to rock out with blazing guitar solos, cool Hammond organ riffs, stacked and glorious mock-baroque tongue-in-cheek neo-gospel vocal harmonies, and lots of driving instrumental passages that occasionally cross the line into arena rock and heavy metal. And have I mentioned they write great songs? Just like the songs that kept me alive in the seventies.

Fisher has lots of things to say about music. “The song must come first. I am not interested in meaningless displays of technical ability.” Which is the essence of progressive pop. He also has lots of things to say, and I think he’s being serious, about his group’s spiritual mission. “We are a rock band and a spiritual organisation,” he told an interviewer, “who welcome all living beings with open arms.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Diamonds & Rust, Joan Baez’s introspective, poetic, and musically lush 1975 album, returns in a definitive 180-gram 45 RPM edition to be released July 11 via Analogue Productions, the esteemed imprint of Acoustic Sounds.

Strictly limited to 2,000 individually numbered copies, this collectible reissue is cut from a ½” flat tape copy of the original analog master tape by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab and pressed at Quality Record Pressings. It delivers the most vivid, tonally rich listening experience of Baez’s timeless classic to date.

This deluxe reissue is housed in a tip-on old-style gatefold jacket with textured stock, crafted with care by Stoughton Printing, offering both a stunning visual and tactile presentation to match the sonic excellence within. The 45 RPM format allows for deeper grooves and greater fidelity, capturing Baez’s pristine voice and evocative arrangements in their most natural and immersive form.

Originally released at a pivotal point in her career, Diamonds & Rust bridges Baez’s folk roots with the sophisticated production of the mid-’70s, bringing a new sonic dimension to her songwriting and interpretations. Anchored by the iconic title track—a bittersweet reflection on her past relationship with Bob Dylan—the album finds Baez at her most personal and expressive, balancing intimate storytelling with bold sonic ambition.

The record also showcases Baez’s interpretive power on tracks like Jackson Browne’s “Fountain of Sorrow” and Stevie Wonder’s “Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer,” both rendered with striking emotional clarity and nuance. “Winds of the Old Days” and “Dida” reveal Baez’s evolution as an artist and her willingness to explore new textures and lyrical perspectives.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Joni Mitchell introduces Joni’s Jazz, a passion project years in the making. This career-spanning collection features recordings chosen by Mitchell that reflect jazz’s profound influence on her music.

The release arrives September 5 as an 8LP vinyl box set and will also be available as a 4CD edition and across all digital and streaming platforms. Both the vinyl and CD versions include liner notes with rare and previously unseen photos and original artwork by Mitchell. Pre-order HERE. An exclusive Joni Mitchell Archives fine-art print is available as a gift-with-purchase exclusive from jonimitchell.com.

Spanning 61 tracks, Joni’s Jazz includes studio recordings, live performances, rare alternate takes, and material drawn from multiple decades and record labels. Among them are two previously unreleased 1980 demos, including one for “Be Cool” that is available today digitally.

The set features contributions from some of Mitchell’s most important collaborators in jazz, among them Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Herbie Hancock, and Charles Mingus. Mitchell, who calls Shorter her favorite collaborator, dedicates the collection to him following his passing in 2023. “It was a joy to play with him,” she writes. “He will be missed, but he will remain alive for me in this music.”

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Remembering Big Bill Broonzy, born on this date in 1893. —Ed.

Born on June 26, 1903, William Lee Conley Broonzy, aka Big Bill Broonzy, was a giant of the blues. Cutting his first sides for Paramount in 1927, an extensive stretch of recordings followed across the next two decades. After a break in the late 1940s, he experienced a career resurrection that lasted until his untimely death in 1958, a sustained second wind that carried him to Europe, where he cut records for the Vogue label in France and was captured in performances of astonishingly high fidelity in the Netherlands. Grooving into vinyl a substantial portion of Broonzy’s shows in the titular city, Liberation Hall’s Live in Amsterdam 1953 arrived for Record Store Day Black Friday in 2022.

To appropriately comprehend the level of Big Bill Broonzy’s popularity, please consider his prolific output across the decade of the Great Depression. The brutal 1930s economic downturn decimated the young record industry, which had been thriving before the crash, and snuffed out recording opportunities for dozens of bluesmen, with a handful of those musicians later “rediscovered” in connection with the folk music boom of the 1950s-’60s. Broonzy was an early catalyst-beneficiary of that boom, and would’ve surely experienced further success had he not died in ’58.

Broonzy’s late ’40s sabbatical from touring (reportedly through doctor’s orders) found him working as a janitor at Iowa State University. It didn’t take him long to return to activity, and when he did there was a comfortable shift into folk blues mode as he kept company with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and Pete Seeger.

That Big Bill choose to hang around with ol’ Pete and Studs Terkel as he pivoted into a somewhat easygoing style no doubt ruffled the feathers of many a subsequent blues purist, particularly as the two Yazoo volumes of his early stuff, The Young Big Bill Broonzy 1928-1936 and Do That Guitar Rag: 1928-1935 are loaded with hokum smokers, wicked rags, and uncut bluesy oomph. Columbia’s Roots N’ Blues comp Good Time Tonight is also an excellent survey of his more urban 1930s motions that benefit from the cleaned up sound that was the Roots N’ Blues series specialty.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Lou Bond only made one album but what an album it was.

Politically charged, deeply introspective, and wonderfully lyrical, 1974’s Lou Bond is reminiscent of the Eugene McDaniels releases Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse and Outlaw (both out previously on Real Gone) in its outspoken, idiosyncratic social commentary. But there is a sensitivity here that’s devastating; Bond’s falsetto soaring over his strummed acoustic guitar brings to mind Bill Withers (whose “Let Me into Your Life” he covers) at his most affecting, while the arrangements summon What’s Going On vibes.

With comparisons like those, you know this record is special, but Lou Bond is a one-of-a-kind album that really defies comparison (despite our best efforts). For this ALL-ANALOG reissue, we had our friends at Well Made Music cut lacquers directly from the original tapes and pressed the record at Gotta Groove Records.

Available either in black vinyl or clear yellow. Both Outkast and Mary K. Blige sampled Lou Bond…that’s because it’s one of the lynchpin albums of Memphis soul.

Skullcap is a DMV-based trio consisting of Janel Leppin on cello and Minimoog, her husband Anthony Pirog on electric guitar, and Mike Kuhl on drums and percussion, longtime collaborators whose debut album Snakes of Albuquerque is out now on vinyl, compact disc, and digital through Cuneiform Records. Described as a power cello trio, Skullcap combines elements of jazz (improvisation and a thoroughly contemporary swing), classical (compositional fortitude), and rock (raw collective firepower). The results, often outstanding, aren’t easily comparable to anything else currently on the scene.

Along with four solo discs and two as leader of Ensemble Volcanic Ash, cellist and composer Janel Leppin has recorded three albums in duo with electric guitarist Anthony Pirog. The nature of Leppin and Pirog’s musical relationship, which has been assessed by the pair as telepathic, should be considered as a main root factor in Skullcap’s success through heightened interaction.

Pirog is also wildly prolific as a player, having recorded solo and as the organizing force in groups of various sizes; he, Leppin, and drummer Mike Kuhl first played together in a sextet assembled by Pirog. Leaderless collectives are also a Pirog specialty, most notably the Messthetics with the Fugazi rhythm section of drummer Brendan Canty and bassist Joe Lally, a trio recently augmented with the saxophone brilliance of James Brandon Lewis.

Drummer Mike Kuhl is a Baltimore guy who has played and recorded with a variety of esteemed musicians both in and outside of jazz. In the jazz context, he drummed on the 2022 album KRAFT alongside trumpeter Dave Ballou, multi-reedman John Dierker, and bassist Luke Stewart. Outside of jazz, he’s contributed to albums by Arboretum (and that band’s guitarist Dace Heumann) and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez.

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DECATUR, IL | On a sweltering summer night in Decatur, Illinois, classic rock fans packed the Devon Lakeshore Amphitheater for a high-energy show headlined by Tesla. The heat didn’t stop anyone from having a great time—not the crowd, not the band, and not the boats idling behind the stage on Lake Decatur, hoping to catch a glimpse of the action.

Opening the night was Kurt Deimer, who delivered a set of mostly original songs with a gritty, modern rock edge. He brought solid energy to the stage and connected with the crowd, sharing that he had appeared in the latest Halloween movie and was proud to have been killed by Michael Myers.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, Tesla hit the stage to thunderous applause. They sounded as tight and powerful as ever, ripping through a setlist packed with classics and fan favorites. Their musicianship and energy kept the crowd on their feet all night long.

The setting couldn’t have been more perfect—the stage backed by the shimmering waters of Lake Decatur, boats drifting just offshore, and fans singing along under the stars. As the night came to a close, Tesla returned for an encore and brought the house down with their iconic hit “Signs,” leaving the crowd cheering and fully satisfied.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Van Halen’s Balance turns 30 this year, and Rhino is celebrating with an expanded edition of the band’s multi-platinum tenth studio album. It follows last year’s successful reissue of For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (Expanded Edition) and concludes Rhino’s spotlight on the band’s classic albums from the Hagar era.

Arriving August 15, Balance (Expanded Edition) will be available as a 2LP/2CD/Blu-ray deluxe set including the original album, remastered for 2023’s The Collection II, along with a selection of audio and video rarities. Pre-order HERE. The collection also contains several unreleased live recordings from the Balance Tour, including “The Seventh Seal,” which is available today digitally.

Standalone versions of Balance will also be available the same day, including a 2CD set with the album and rarities, and a 2LP black vinyl and 2LP orange vinyl pressing that presents the full album on vinyl for the first time in 30 years. Here, the complete album spans three sides, for optimal audio quality, with a Balance-era etching on the fourth.

Balance (Expanded Edition) collects non-album tracks from the period, including the B-side “Crossing Over,” along with “Humans Being” and “Respect the Wind” from the Twister soundtrack. Eight standout performances from the band’s 1995 Wembley Stadium appearance, which the BBC broadcast, are also featured. The recordings offer rare live versions of Balance tracks like “Feelin’” and “The Seventh Seal.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Motown’s L.A.-based Mowest label lasted less than two years, but managed in that short time to release some of the most adventurous music the company ever put out.

And probably the most intrepid—and nowadays, adored—Mowest release of them all was the 1972 self-titled release from Odyssey. This one-off brought elite West Coast sessionmen like Wrecking Crew mainstay Don Peake, one-time Chicago member Donnie Dacus, and arranger/orchestrator extraordinaire Gene Page together with a bunch of West Coast hippie rockers (as Peake says, “We were invited to lunch, introduced to some nice people and told we were going to form a band”).

The happy result was a record that has appeared on more deejay turntables than you can count, a one-of-a-kind blend of funky Motown bottom with a spacy sensibility and sound that fits right in next to, say, the latest Khruangbin album on your psychedelic chill playlist even as it activates your 5th Dimension sunshine pop endorphins. The single “Our Lives Are Shaped by What We Love” is probably the pick to click, but the whole album is a total vibe.

Real Gone Music is reissuing Odyssey for the first time ever in the US (the Japanese have long been all over this album) on blue-green “ocean spray” vinyl, complete with original album art, including the lyric insert. Remastered for the format by Mike Milchner at Sonic Vision, and pressed at Gotta Groove Records for superior sound. A must!

The music world lost two pioneering artists in the past few weeks: Sly Stone and Brian Wilson. While stylistically they were worlds apart, they both hailed from the West Coast, were troubled and sometimes tortured souls, and created singular music as writers, producers, and songwriters that began with simple genres, surf music for Wilson and R&B for Stone.

While Wilson has received his due, Stone has not. His career peak was short-lived. However, when one hears the music of Prince and that of some of Stone’s contemporaries such as Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Miles, and even George Clinton, Stone’s was clearly an unparalleled career, primarily in how he created an almost undefinable sound and a music that simply didn’t exist before he fully matured and which was also very popular.

It’s ironic that at the same time as his passing, we got a previously unreleased live album that comes full circle back to the earliest live beginnings of Sly and the Family Stone. This raw, intimate live album was recorded in March of 1967 at the California venue Winchester Cathedral in Redwood City, south of San Francisco, only a few months before the group’s debut on Epic Records, A Whole New Thing.

The almost lo-fi release sounds like a hot R&B soul band playing for a Saturday night group of people who just wanted to party and dance. While one can hear faint echoes of riffs that would go on to be a part of one of the group’s biggest songs, “I Want to Take You Higher,” the rest of the set is more gritty bar band soul. Jimi Hendrix also cut his teeth as a guitarist with groups like this, although that was much earlier in time.

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Hailing from New Jersey, the indie pop outfit Lightheaded has a new LP, Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming hitting stores on June 27. The same day finds Massachusetts-based indie pop act Jeanines unveiling a fresh LP of their own, How Long Can It Last, and don’tcha just know it, the Lightheaded and Jeanines albums are being released by Slumberland in North America and by Skep Wax in the UK and EU. Both records are a delight. There is a tandem record release show in Brooklyn, NY at Trans-Pecos on June 27 and then the groups vault the big pond as tourmates for a run of UK shows in the second half of July.

There are photos of Lightheaded that include three, four, and five people, but the core of the group is founders Cynthia Rittenbach on bass and vocals and Stephen Stec on guitar. Active since 2017, the drummers, additional guitarists, and backing singers have spun through a revolving door as they debuted with the cassette Cowboys and Constellations in 2019.

Next came the 5-song cassette EP “Good Good Great!” in 2023, followed quickly with the full-length Combustible Gems, their first on vinyl, last year. Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming offers five new songs on side one and adds the five songs from the “Good Good Great!” tape on the flip. The new stuff was cut with either Gary Olson (of The Ladybug Transistor) or Alicia Vanden Heuvel (of The Aislers Set and Poundsign) in the studio, and with Fred Thomas (of Saturday Looks Good to Me) mixing the songs for release.

Knowledge of Olson’s, Vanden Heuvel’s, and Thomas’ work should give Lightheaded newbies more than a hint into what’s happening on Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming. The songs are lush but not too polished, with rich depth of instrumentation, as opener “Same Drop” includes keyboards, strings, and bursts of trumpet.

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