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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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Today, UMe announces details of a forthcoming 40th anniversary cut-down format of the 2016 original Super Deluxe celebration of Simple Minds’ multi-platinum album Once Upon A Time, out on October 17th.

Originally released in October 1985, Once Upon A Time became Simple Minds’ most successful album to date, shifting two million copies in two months, hitting the top spot in the UK, and making the top ten in America. It spawned four top-twenty singles and launched a fifteen-month-long world tour. And with Jimmy Iovine and Bob Clearmountain providing a production dream team, and Anton Corbijn contributing to its instantly recognizable artwork, Once Upon A Time has all the attributes of a classic 1980s LP.

Coming hot on the heels of the global smash single “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” (which recently joined the Billions Club on Spotify), Once Upon a Time was to prove the album that propelled Simple Minds to stratospheric heights of artistic and commercial success. The album contains the classic hit singles “Alive and Kicking,” “All the Things She Said,” “Sanctify Yourself,” and “Ghost Dancing.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Chicago IX was the band’s first greatest hits collection, topping the album chart in 1975 and selling more than five million copies to become one of their best-selling albums. To mark its 50th anniversary, Rhino will release Chicago IX: Greatest Hits Expanded Edition on August 8 as a 2LP Black vinyl set and single CD. Pre-order HERE. The new edition expands the original 11-track lineup into a 21-track collection that now includes songs from every studio album the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers released between 1969 and 1980.

New additions like “Street Player,” “Thunder and Lightning,” and “Baby, What A Big Surprise” extend the timeline through the ’70s and up to the dawn of the ’80s, while early cuts like “Questions 67 and 68” and “Free” help round out the band’s formative years. Signature tracks from the original release—such as “25 or 6 to 4,” “Saturday in the Park,” and “If You Leave Me Now”—remain central to the collection. Several songs from Chicago (1970) appear in their Steven Wilson remix/edit versions, first issued in 2017. The updated selection reflects a broader retrospective of Chicago’s first decade, with the cover artwork subtly revised from its original white background to a new gold backdrop in honor of the album’s anniversary.

Chicago launched the year with an incredible appearance and live performance of two songs on NBC’s The Kelly Clarkson Show, and will be bringing their legendary, unmatched catalogue of beloved hits to fans across the states for the rest of 2025.

The band kicked off their summer tour this weekend in Waite Park, MN and just announced additional shows to go on sale this Friday. Upcoming shows include stops in Kansas City, Louisville, Milwaukee, Chicago, Virginia Beach, Newark, Bangor and Boston ahead of New York’s iconic Beacon Theater. They head west in August to play Denver, Boise, and Bend before traversing California ahead of three nights at Los Angeles’s historic Hollywood Bowl. Full dates are below. For ticket information visit www.chicagotheband.com.

Remembering Mick Ralphs. —Ed.

The ballad of Mott the Hoople—the English glam band that gave us one of the most ecstatic moments in rock history with Ian Hunter’s “I’ve wanted to do this for years!” in “All the Young Dudes”—begins not in 1969, when the band was formed, but 3 years earlier, when one Willard Manus wrote a novel called Mott the Hoople, which rock visionary and total madman Guy “There Are Only Two Phil Spectors in the World and I Am One of Them” Stevens happened to pick up and read while in gaol for drug offenses.

We will never know what Stevens, a kind of manager, producer, and talent scout famed for his prodigious intake of mind-altering substances and eccentric behavior—his favorite method of inspiring a band in the studio was to destroy every piece of equipment in sight, or in the case of The Clash, pour beer on the piano—thought of Manus’ novel. But we do know Stevens loved its title, so much so that he saved it as a name for a truly special band. That band turned out to be Silence, which had been fecklessly wandering to and fro across the earth in search of a record contract. That is until Stevens, who worked for Island Records, saw something in them that no one else did.

That said, Stevens knew they needed molding, and he wasted no time doing it. The first thing he did after changing their name to Mott the Hoople—which nobody in Silence particularly liked—was dismiss vocalist Stan Tippins, and put out an advertisement for a new singer. The ad was answered by one Ian Hunter, a wild-haired punter who couldn’t decide whether he wanted to be Bob Dylan or Sonny Bono (seriously). He auditioned by performing Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” which made him just the person Stevens was looking for, because it was the crazed producer’s goal to create a band that fused the sounds of Dylan and the Rolling Stones.

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Hailing from Washington, DC, the trio Motherfuckers JMB & Co. specialize in contemporary psychedelia with an equal emphasis on atmosphere and rhythmic drive. The members are Jim Thomson (the J) on drums, Marc Minsker (the M) on harmonium, bass, and guitar, and Brian Weitz, aka Geologist (the B), on hurdy gurdy. All three have extensive experience on the scene, but this is no shallow supergroup gesture. The lack of vocals reflects an absence of overabundant egos in favor of focused tandem attention to the titular elements of their debut album, Music Excitement Action Beauty, which is out on vinyl July 4 through the label Via Parigi.

The roots of Motherfuckers JMB & Co. reach back to the fertile soil of the 1980s underground. Jim Thomson played drums in Alter-Natives, a Richmond, VA band that landed on the roster of SST Records for three albums as part of that label’s quest to quash punk/hardcore genericism by signing a certified metric fuckton of bands, all with a common expansionist trait. More famously perhaps, Thomson was an early member of Gwar, and was later in the outfits Hotel X, Bio Ritmo, Tulsa Drone, CSC Funk Band, Chain & the Gang, and Time Is Fire, along with running Electric Cowbell Records.

Marc Minsker was in Third Eye Lounge, a band that carries the distinction of backing the great avant-folk-C&W-jazz-rock-psych guitarist Eugene Chadbourne. Although videos of Third Eye Lounge exist online, the group is fairly obscure. Decidedly not obscure is Brian Weitz’s work in Animal Collective, where he sported the handle Geologist.

Animal Collective dished out a particularly robust and quickly identifiable strain of boundary-pushing contemporary psychedelia, but Motherfuckers JMB & Co. are onto a sound with stronger connections to established psych forms such as space rock, motorik, and even post-Syd pre-Dark Side Pink Floyd. Music Excitement Action Beauty begins with a “classic” Eastern-tinged drone, “Rise,” that quickly bleeds into the spacy groove of drum showcase “Breakers Part 1.”

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