VIA PRESS RELEASE | In 1976 the seminal line-up of Motörhead was solidified a year after the band’s initial inception. Known as the “Three Amigos” era of Motörhead, Lemmy (bass/vocals), Fast Eddie Clarke (guitar), and Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor (drums) joined forces and began their extraordinary journey to the top of the hard rock elite.

In August 1976 the band set up at Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s legendary Manticore Studio in Fulham to rehearse and showcase the new lineup. While they were there they recorded together for the very first time and now, forty nine years later, this long lost tape has surfaced, been dusted off and restored in all its raw glory, to celebrate the seminal hard rock band’s 50th anniversary

It’s quite surreal, even unbelievable that a whole half century has elapsed since that vital time in 1976. Just as remarkable, especially for those who remember Lemmy hammering the fruit machines of London’s pubs or as the era’s most extraordinarily approachable rock star, has been this always humble man’s ascension to Mount Rushmore-like immortality as rock ‘n’ roll’s ultimate icon, this despite his having sadly passed away nearly ten years ago. Lemmy himself certainly would have cackled.

The dogged struggles Motörhead faced in the first four of their 50 years are well documented and the almost accidental manifestation of this album—and the circumstances under which it was recorded—present a previously barely known new element in the band’s history from that time when it’s very future looked bleak had events not taken a different course.

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Celebrating Tom Petersson on his 75th birthday. —Ed.

What a cheap trick. Here Rockford, Illinois’ finest put out Heaven Tonight which I considered the coolest album in the galaxy, only to follow it up with Cheap Trick at Budokan and the heinous “I Want You to Want Me,” which I’ve had to suffer through like 80,000 times over the years. Every single person I know loves the damn song. I’d sooner listen to the death rattle of a unicorn.

That said, 1978’s Heaven Tonight–the band’s third–still makes me as giddy as an axe-wielding maniac at a remote summer camp. It’s a knee-trembling, rock ‘em sock ‘em, wham bam than you ma’am classic, and it solidly established Cheap Trick amongst America’s Power Pop elite alongside the Raspberries, Big Star, and (my campy faves) Redd Kross.

What set Cheap Trick apart from the power pop pack was hard rock crunch. They infused their catchy melodies with steroids: had they been ML baseball players they’d have gone the way of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Songs such as “Surrender,” “On the Radio,” and “How Are You” may not be cement mixers, but “High Roller,” “Auf Wiedersehen,” and “Stiff Competition” all fall into Robert Christgau’s characterization of Heaven Tonight as “power-tooled hard rock product.”

Heaven Tonight is a case of eclecticism at work. “Surrender” is an ecstatic-making monument, like Mount Rushmore but with a better chorus. And it’s funny to boot. Robin Zander comes downstairs to discover his parents going at it, and with his Kiss records playing to boot. It’s a friendly bridge across the generation gap; if the kids are alright, so are the parents. Mom and dad aren’t out of it, they’re with it, and it’s a life-altering revelation.

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Jaco Jaco is the project of Philadelphia-based musician, visual artist, and former member of beloved indie-rock trio Sports, Jacob Theriot.

The music Theriot makes as Jaco Jaco straddles genre—a little funk, a little psych, a little dreamy ’70s AM rock. The follow up to Jaco Jaco’s 2024 debut Splat, Gremlin is a playful, elegant record that isn’t directly inspired by the movie Gremlins, but honors the movie’s use of kitsch and camp to explore a prevailing mood of irreverence and introspection. It’s also a visual marvel that is aesthetically inspired by the early ‘90s sitcom Dinosaurs, Les Blank docs, and the world of alternative comic books.

Jacob and I talked about the new album, our gear obsessions, and putting sirens in songs.

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.

Look: Unless you’re a resident in, or owner of, an English retirement home, I cannot in good conscience recommend that you purchase a copy of early Seventies English novelty act Lieutenant Pigeon’s 2023 compilation album The Decca Years. It’s the kind of album you should listen to with antimacassars, not headphones. The smell of overcooked roast beef should be in the air. And your best friend should be a desiccated specimen of vintage English truculence named Gertie, who is forever accusing you filching her “kinky knickers.”

Of The Decca Years’ forty-eight tracks, compiled from three LPs the band recorded in 1973 and 1974 along with some songs, many are relatively staid music hall fare. I find maybe ten listenable, and I’m being charitable. And unless you’re a rather perverse person, or living in the aforementioned retirement community, you’ll probably never feel the need to listen to said maybe ten listenable tracks more than twice, once to be struck agog, and then again to be sure you actually heard what you think you just heard.

But: you should give The Decca Years a listen, if only because Lieutenant Pigeon of Coventry England (birthplace of The Specials!) are probably the strangest band to ever find their way onto BBC’s popular television “programme” Top of the Pops AND the top of the pop charts (back in 1972), which given we’re talking about England where eccentricity is more tolerated (and even celebrated) than here in the boring States, is really saying something. The English are a strange people. They sit down to eel pie and spotted dick, say completely incomprehensible things like “Bob’s your uncle” and celebrate Boxing Day, which has absolutely nothing to do with fisticuffs, bare-knuckled or gloved. And they don’t even celebrate the Fourth of July!

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Joe Keithley’s journey from cultural politician to politician is a lesson in applied punk: the guy is a lifer, he literally practices what he preaches. That’s what makes Something Better Change such an inspiring movie—and goodness knows, it couldn’t be more timely.” —Michael Azerrad, author of Our Band Could Be Your Life

New Rose/SBC Films has announced the release of Something Better Change, a documentary film that tells the story of punk activist turned politician Joe Keithley. His shocking 2018 victory in Burnaby (the seat of Metro Vancouver’s regional government) was a huge win for Keithley and the Green Party—and a natural evolution for the punk rock provocateur.

Throughout the 1980s, outfits like Black Flag, D.O.A., Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, and the Circle Jerks helped define the decade’s deafening hardcore punk sound, paving the way for the eventual explosion of punk bands through radio and MTV in the decades to come. While punk rock’s upper echelon may no longer be as culturally seditious as they once were, the genre’s effect on a new generation of activists and aspiring politicians has never been more clear.

The Vancouver-based D.O.A. have always been a politically outspoken outfit since first forming in 1978 as teenagers. Their mix of raucous anthems like “Fucked Up Ronnie,” “America The Beautiful,” “The Prisoner” and others remain classics. The band’s 1981 LP entitled Hardcore ’81 was awarded the prestigious Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize in 2019 , which honors groundbreaking Canadian albums from the past, winning out over 11 other critical album releases including The Band’s Music From Big Pink, Sarah McLachlan’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, and Joni Mitchell’s Court And Spark.

In 2018, after 40 years of fighting against oppression, homelessness and corporate greed around the world, D.O.A. front man Joe Keithley decided to turn art into life and run against the outspoken Mayor of Burnaby, Derek Corrigan. In a classic underdog scenario—and with only a $7000 campaign budget—Keithley convincingly won a city councillor seat that year and helped to unseat the entrenched five-term Corrigan who once famously said, “I would never bend over to give a homeless person a dime because he might steal my watch.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Rock and Roll Hall of Fame® inductees and GRAMMY® Award-winning iconic band The Who will release, Live At The Oval 1971, as part of the Whooligan Fan Club exclusively HERE, fans will receive early ticket access, exclusive Whooligan merchandise and a copy of Live At The Oval 1971!

The Who announced their bittersweet final tour of the US and Canada as a truly grand finale of their illustrious six-decade career. The legendary duo, Roger Daltrey & Pete Townshend, revealed the news live during a press conference at the Iconic Images gallery in Piccadilly, London. The 2025 North America Farewell Tour aptly titled The Song Is Over is named after the Who’s 1971 classic song. Tickets will be available on Friday, May 16 at 10:00 AM local time at thewho.com/tour/.On August 22, 2025— Live At The Oval 1971 will be available on all DSPs, CD, Atmos, and 2LP 180g Black Vinyl, and limited edition 2LP Sea Blue & Red Hot Color Swirl & Splatter Vinyl. Fans may now pre-order Live At The Oval 1971 on The Who’s official store HERE; available for pre-order at all retailers June 13th.

Live At The Oval 1971 is the first-ever official recording of The Who’s sought-after set at Goodbye Summer: A Rock Concert in aid of Famine Relief for the People of Bangla Desh. The band notably headlined The Oval cricket ground in Kennington, South London on September 18, 1971 for this benefit.

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Celebrating Alex Van Halen, born on this day in 1953. —Ed.

A couple of years ago the apartment my ex-wife and I lived in suffered a mouse infestation. We tried regular traps and glue traps, but they seemed terribly cruel, so we finally bought some catch-and-release traps. We lived on the third floor, and I got tired of carrying the traps down to the alley to release them. So I thought, why not release them on the balcony, where they’d be free to scamper along the rooftops to safety? So I tried it, but instead of escaping via the rooftops my frightened test mouse shot out of his little prison like a furry little bullet, promptly sailed off the edge of our balcony, and fell screaming (I may have imagined the screaming) to the concrete parking space below.

I’m not sure why—or actually I am—why that mouse never fails to remind me of Van Halen’s great “Jump.” I might as well have been singing, “Jump! Go ahead and jump!” as he plummeted earthwards. But anyway, the point I want to make is not that mice should look before they leap, although they should, but that I love Van Halen’s “Jump”—loved it even during those years when virtually all I listened to were SST bands, and admitting to liking a Van Halen song (at least amongst my crowd) was not so far from confessing to like that Seals and Crofts song about the summer breeze blowing through the jasmine in your mind.

I should add that my love for “Jump” did not extend to Van Halen itself. I had in fact never so much as listened to a Van Halen LP in its entirety, much less owned one. Honestly? I thought they were a band of morons. They dressed like Jose Feliciano was their haberdasher, and it was my considered opinion that Eddie Van Halen was a shameless showboater with his tapping (a technique he didn’t invent); single pickup, single volume knob guitar; and volume swells, or “violining.”

Then there was the perpetually mugging David Lee Roth, whom I considered the world’s oldest class clown. (I’ve come to love him over the years for the same reason.) As for bassist Michael Anthony, well, bassist Michael Anthony was just short. Too short. Like midget short. Then there was the drummer, Eddie’s brother, whose name slips my mind (Alex? Alek like Lee Harvey Oswald’s USSR name?) but it hardly matters because who pays attention to the drummer except other drummers anyway?

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Fig Dish returned from hybernation in 2024 with two sold out shows in Chicago and the release of Feels Like The Very First Two Times, the band’s unreleased third album, recorded in the late ’90s before resting in a dusty, Chicago vault for 27 years. On August 1, they’ll reissue their debut album That’s What Love Songs Often Do on vinyl for the first time, 30 years after the original release on Forge Again Records. The officially licensed 2xLP is limited to 500 copies on translucent blue vinyl, reworked gatefold jacket art by Wall of Youth, and vinyl mastering by Carl Saff.

Fig Dish will celebrate the re-release with live performances supporting former tour-mates Letters To Cleo in Milwaukee at X-Ray Arcade on Thursday, July 24 and Chicago at Subterranean on Friday, July 25. Tickets on sale Friday, August 25 at 10 am CT via Kickstand Productions.

A recent Reddit thread was titled, “Fig Dish might be the least popular band of the grunge era according to Spotify.” Now, you should probably emphasize the “era” in the phrase “grunge era”—Fig Dish wasn’t grunge and were far more likely to be compared to midwestern bands like Cheap Trick, The Replacements, and Hüsker Dü. And like those bands, Fig Dish had a penchant for pop melodies, noisy guitars, and angsty lyrics.

So, who was this band that Chicago magazine called “the folkloric Chicago outfit”? Fig Dish were four high school friends: guitarists/vocalists Rick Ness and Blake Smith, bassist/vocalist Mike Willison, and drummer Andy Hamilton. In their day, they were known for catchy songs, memorable (often booze-fueled) live shows, and self-sabotage. But before the Illinois Entertainer could write a sentence like “I would walk through a sniper’s alley to see this band live,” the band had to start drinking after rather than before shows to avoid eliciting reactions like this one, from a Pittsburgh music critic: “they were so sloppy they made The Replacements look like Rush.”

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On May 9, Sublime Frequencies gifts curious listeners a pair of diligently assembled compilations in accordance with the label’s norm. The first, Born in the City of Tanta – Lower Egyptian Urban Folklore and Bedouin Shaabi from Libya’s Bourini Records 1968-75, documents the productivity of a key independent Egyptian label, and the second, Tsapiky! Modern Music from Southwest Madagascar offers a dose of potent contemporary ceremonial music mayhem from the country of its title. Both LPs are mandatory listens for anybody seeking to keep solid tabs on the global musical scheme, historically and in the moment.

Born in the City of Tanta collects eight tracks originally issued on 45 rpm discs across the timeframe listed in the LP’s full title. These sides document the sound of the emerging shaabi style, which presented an edgier alternative to the “official” pop music dubbed “al-musiqa al-arabia” that was coming out of Cairo during the period.

Smooth, refined, and highly accomplished, al-musiqa al-arabia was also essentially a closed off realm, its stars untouchable, and when this circumstance arises anywhere on the planet it’s basically inevitable that a more relatable and more intense style will emerge to fill the void. When this happens, it’s almost always independent labels that harness the sounds heard in clubs and modest halls via recordings; this is exactly the impulse documented on Born in the City of Tanta, as Bourini Records released in the ballpark of 40-50 records in the titular eight-year span.

Compiled by Hisham Mayet and Gary Sullivan, the selections are varied in execution. There is the swirling full-band intensity of “Yana Alla Nafsa Masouda” (“Blocked from What I Want”) by Basis Rahouma and “Mould fi Madina Tanta” (“Born in the City of Tanta”) by Sheikh Amin Abdel Qader. There’s the lithe trio action (lyre/violin/percussion) of “Al Bint al Libya” (“The Girl from Libya”) by Abu Abab.

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