VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Latino salutes Héctor “El Cantante” Lavoe with a 45th-anniversary reissue of his classic sixth solo album, El Sabio. A longtime fan-favorite, the 1980 LP includes such tracks as “Lloré,” “Noche de Farra,” and “Plazos Traicioneros.”

Making its debut on 180-gram vinyl on July 18, and returning to the format for the first time since its original release, El Sabio features all-analog mastering by Dave Polster and Clint Holley at Well Made Music for an optimal listening experience. In addition, a limited-edition (only 300) “Verde Natural” (Natural Green) 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 now.

Perhaps the greatest interpreter of salsa music, singer Héctor Lavoe (1946–1993) was instrumental in popularizing the genre during the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. Known for his impeccably bright vocals, seamless phrasing, and ad-libbed anecdotes, it’s no surprise that Lavoe earned the nickname “El Cantante” after his 1978 hit of the same name (penned for him by the great Rubén Blades). Born Héctor Juan Pérez Martínez in Ponce, Puerto Rico, the singer relocated to New York City at 17, where he picked up his stage name and began performing in bands led by Roberto García, Kako, and Fania Records owner, Johnny Pacheco.

It was through Pacheco that Lavoe met 16-year-old Willie Colón, with whom he would form one of Latin music’s most celebrated partnerships. Beginning in 1967, Lavoe appeared as a vocalist on ten legendary studio albums with the Willie Colón Orchestra, including the boogaloo classic, El Malo (1967), plus best-sellers like Cosa Nuestra (1970), Asalto Navideño (1971), and Lo Mato (1973).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The music’s by Cyndi Lauper. The book’s by Harvey Fierstein.

It garnered 13 Tony Award nominations, and won 6 of them, including Best Musical, Best Actor (for Billy Porter), and Best Score. The cast album (this one right here) soared on the Billboard charts (#1 on the Cast Albums chart), and “Sex in the Heel” was the first Broadway song to hit the Top Ten on the Club charts in 25 years. And it’s been 12 years since the album was released.

So how, in the name of the gender-fluid deity of your choice, can it be that a vinyl version of Kinky Boots has never hit record stores?! Well, all we can do is to make sure that this long-awaited release is worth the wait. And folks, with two fabulous fuchsia LPs clad in a gorgeous gatefold jacket containing a full-color insert, we think it’s safe to say that we have, er, put our best feet forward with our vinyl Kinky Boots!

This musical’s message of acceptance and empowerment is more timely than ever, and we defy you not to have a lump in your throat for the curtain-closer “Raise You Up/ Just Be.” High-kicking fun!

Bob Dylan celebrated his 84th birthday on May 24. As of this writing, Dylan is still on the road, headed for another joint. While the plethora of books on Dylan over the years do not compare in sheer volume to books on The Beatles, many good books are published that seek to find new angles to untangle this enigmatic artist of unmatched talent and continued relevance.

Two recent books are a fine example of such an approach. The first focuses on Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks album, and the other is the first biography of Richard Manuel of The Band. The Band was significant to some of Dylan’s key periods, and the Manuel book covers The Band’s time with Dylan extensively. It is not only a must-read for Band fans and scholars but also for Dylan fans and scholars.

Blood in The Tracks is arguably Dylan’s best work after the mountaintop triumvirate of the 1960s of Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited in 1965 and Blonde on Blonde in 1966. Released in 1975, the album wasn’t so much a comeback for Dylan as a watershed next step in the evolution of a restless and endlessly talented artist who, in addition to his never-ending tour, seems incapable of making anything less than another historic album in a career filled with historic markers.

This book looks at the unheralded musicians who made up the Minnesota sessions for Blood on the Tracks. Original sessions for the album were done in New York, and the album was ready to go, and the artwork for the jacket was even in place. However, spurred on primarily by his brother David, Dylan decided to rerecord some of the tracks in his native Minnesota. With the help of David, Dylan worked with local musicians, and the fruits of their labor comprised nearly half of the album that was finally released.

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Best known for their 1980 hit “Turning Japanese,” The Vapors are a band that formed in 1979 in Guildford, UK which is also home to The Stranglers.

They were brought to a larger UK audience with a support slot on The Jam’s iconic 1979 “Setting Sons” tour, and were by then managed by The Jam’s Bruce Foxton and Paul Weller’s father John. Their debut album spawned several hits including “News At Ten” and” Waiting for the Weekend.” They put out a second album, Magnets in 1981, toured extensively and then broke up. In 2016, they played their first gig in 35 years and have been making records and playing again ever since. I spoke with lead singer and songwriter Dave Fenton about all these things.

The Vapors are releasing their fourth album Wasp in a Jar on February 28, 2025 and have an extensive tour planned. If you go to the band’s website you’ll be able to view the calendar and all other Vapors happenings

Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer. She is the co-creator and lead singer of Lulu Lewis and creator of 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.

Back in 1999–2000, W. Cullen Hart, he of Olivia Tremor Control and Circulatory System, and Andrew Rieger, who’s noted as a founding member of Elf Power, were roommates. They also recorded together during that period, and the new 10-inch EP “Leap Through Poisoned Air” brings the collaboration to light a quarter century later. It’s a succinct batch of songs, loose but cohesive and unsurprisingly infused with psychedelia. That Hart passed away in November 2024 deepens the release’s poignancy. It’s available May 30 through the label Orange Twin.

Collaborations that arise through friendship and with the ease of close proximity tend toward the likeable but often lack the interactive spark that signifies the endeavor as being truly worthwhile. That it took 25 years for “Leap Through Poisoned Air” to emerge can lead to suspicions over its quality, which are compounded by Hart’s recent passing.

It only takes a few spins to absorb the pair’s creative energies on a release that can be spun numerous times in quick succession due to its sheer brevity. The desire for more is really the main complaint this set inspires, and that pang doesn’t negatively impact what is here, as there’s no creeping sense of the insubstantial.

Another positive is the avoidance of the equational simplicity of Olivia Trmor Control + Elf Power = “Leap Through Poisoned Air.” Although psychedelia permeates all four of the set’s tracks, there is a bedroom quality to the whole that wanders nearer to Lou Barlow’s work (in said bedroom mode) than to the Elephant 6. However, an important distinction is that Hart and Rieger’s work here, if sonically modest, isn’t lo-fi. They likely didn’t record in a bedroom at all.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Exclusive screening event of The Zombies’ first-ever feature documentary, followed by a special Q&A and performance by lead singer Colin Blunstone, joined by director Robert Schwartzman’s band Rooney.

Hung Up On A Dream traces The Zombies’ remarkable 6-decade journey from teenage friends to Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees. With its initial release this May in theatres across the nation, the film has already garnered rave reviews and a 90% “Rotten Tomatoes” score. The documentary features archival footage and performances, interviews with all four surviving original members, and appearances by admirers including Paul Weller, Dave Grohl, Hayley Williams, and FINNEAS. Kent Hill of Film Threat praises that the doc “doesn’t care about stardom or stats. It cares about the soul of music, the kind that takes root, disappears, then returns like a ghost at the edge of memory.”

The Zombies’ legendary lead singer Colin Blunstone and musician/filmmaker Robert Schwartzman are pairing up to take the film on the road for a series of special screenings in music venues across the country. The screenings will feature a post-film conversation between the director and subject and a special unplugged set by Blunstone with Schwartzman’s acclaimed power-pop band Rooney.

Rooney opened for The Zombies for shows on their Summer 2022 run and recently wrapped Jeff Lynne’s ELO farewell tour. The band cites The Zombies as one of the main influences for their music. This will be the first live music collaboration between the artists.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Widely acclaimed British band the Levellers celebrate the 30th anniversary of their chart-topping album Zeitgeist. Set for release on November 7th via Warner Music, the Zeitgeist 30th Anniversary Collection will be available on 2LP and 3CD formats. It is available to pre-order now, and fans who pre-order will get exclusive access to the tour pre-sale on Weds 21st May.

The aptly titled Zeitgeist solidified Levellers at the forefront of British music in 1995. Following their record-breaking headline performance at Glastonbury Festival the year before, Zeitgeist soared to the top of the charts with its release in August, batting off competition from Blur and The Charlatans, and becoming the sound of that summer alongside the likes of Supergrass, Oasis and Pulp. Levellers completely rewrote the rulebook on their own terms, proving themselves heroes of the scene for free thinkers, drop-outs, vagabonds, vagrants, and dreamers. Zeitgeist, like its title, caught its moment in time and yet still sounds timeless.

Perhaps because the Levellers have always operated outside the flimsy constructs of fashion, perhaps because they have always worn their heart on their sleeves, and perhaps because their songs resound through the decades—or perhaps because they are wrapped up in a very English idealism—they have always defied gravity. Like all the great bands, they sound like the eternal music that comes from the soil of their surroundings. Their music is the true folk that shimmers throughout the centuries, and the music from the soil of this land.

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Remembering Rick Derringer. —Ed.

I don’t know about you, but I spend plenty of time thinking about the words I want engraved on my headstone. They’re going to be there for eternity, after all, so you want your epitaph to be both eye-catching and memorable. Over the years I’ve gone from E.M. Cioran’s, “Only one thing matters; learning to be the loser” to “Futility Lies Here” to “This is all your fault.” But I always come back to the aside Rick Derringer tosses off in the middle of “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo,” to wit, “Did somebody say keep on rockin’?”

“Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo” is one of rock’s greatest songs, and Derringer’s version is decidedly superior to the one recorded by Johnny Winter in 1970. Winter’s version is surprisingly sluggish, and it took Derringer, an axe-slinger more attuned to pure rock’n’roll than the blues, to really press down on the accelerator. And Derringer’s rock chops are what make his 1973 LP, All American Boy, so wonderful.

The ex-McCoy—you know, the band that gave us “Hang on Sloopy”—has very impressive bona fides as a sideman and hired gun. He has had a quasi-incestuous relationship with the Winter Brothers and participated in various of their projects, played on several Steely Dan tunes, was responsible for the guitar solo on Alice Cooper’s “Under My Wheels,” and played on Todd Rundgren’s best albums, including Something/Anything. And I’m just cherry picking here.

But it’s the solo (and star-studded) LP All American Boy that is his finest hour. It’s all over the place, but most of its songs work, and what we’re looking at here is a sadly neglected album of great merit. He certainly brought in the talent: Edgar Winter plays keyboards, David Bromberg plays guitar and dobro, Joe Walsh throws in on electric guitar, Bobby Caldwell handles drum chores, Suzi Quatro plays bass on those songs that Kenny Passarelli doesn’t, and Toots Thielemans even contributes on harmonica.

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Formed by guitarist-vocalists David Roback and Matt Piucci in 1981, Rain Parade was integral in shaping the sound of the largely Los Angeles-based explosion of neo-psychedelia that was dubbed the Paisley Underground. The global impact of this movement was significant at the time, as Rain Parade’s second LP Crashing Dream was released by major label Island Records in 1985. The Paisley Underground’s impact also endures today; a deluxe, remastered edition of Crashing Dream complete with demos and live tracks sees reissue May 30 on double vinyl, compact disc, and digital through Label 51 Recordings.

Following the self-released single “What She’s Done to Your Mind” b/w “Kaleidoscope” from 1982, Rain Parade’s first album Emergency Third Rail Power Trip hit stores the following year courtesy of the Enigma label, with its own 2LP edition emerging last year courtesy of Label 51. Along with Piucci and Roback, the Rain Parade of Emergency Third Rail Power Trip consisted of Roback’s brother Steven on bass and vocals, Will Glenn on vocals and violin, and Eddie Kalwa on drums.

After David Roback exited the band to form Opal with the Dream Syndicate’s Kendra Smith (which gradually morphed into Mazzy Star), Rain Parade continued as a quartet for the highly regarded “Explosions in the Glass Palace” EP (or mini-LP, as it was described upon release). And then for Crashing Dream the lineup returned to a five-piece but with Mark Marcum replacing Kalwa on drums. John Thoman joined on guitar and backing vocals.

Like many major label debuts of the 1980s, Crashing Dream loses a bit of steam in terms of quality as well as being the least psychedelic of the band’s 1980s albums (counting “Explosions in the Glass Palace,” which was combined with Emergency Third Rail Power Trip on one CD in 1992). But reengaging with Crashing Dream, having not heard it for a couple of decades (at least), reveals it as a record that’s stronger than its reputation.

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We’ve closed TVD’s HQ for the Memorial Day holiday. While we’re away, why not fire up our Record Store Locator app and visit one of your local indie record stores?

Perhaps there’s an interview, review, or feature you might have missed? Catch up and we’ll see you back here tomorrow, 5/27.