VIA PRESS RELEASE | Rough Trade Records is celebrating its formative years with the release of a limited boxset on June 20, 2025, featuring several of its key, early seven-inch singles.

Boasting eight classic 45s that followed the label’s formation out the original Rough Trade shop in West London in 1978, Rough Trade 45s: Volume 1 features the likes of Augustus Pablo, The Raincoats and Young Marble Giants.

The eight singles, which have been recreated especially for this edition, were handpicked by Rough Trade Records co-MDs, Jeannette Lee and Geoff Travis, who were key players in the DIY nexus that formed around the first Rough Trade shop in the late 1970s.

“There wasn’t much commercial thinking behind starting a label out of the first Rough Trade shop, not much planning,” recalls Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records’ beginnings. “We were just doing things out of love really.”

Reflecting this passion behind its foundation, rather than a dry definitive history of the label’s early years, the boxset represents a personal and musical history, as inspired by Rough Trade’s recent 45th anniversary, Geoff and Jeannette have selected tracks that represent moments of true creative spark from the time.

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Remembering Richard Manuel, born on this day in 1943. —Ed.

When I think of The Band, which just happens to be my favorite group in the whole wide world, it’s not “The Weight” that first comes to mind, or “This Wheel’s on Fire” or “Rockin’ Chair” or even the brilliant body of ramshackle demos they recorded with Bob Dylan in the basement of the rented house they dubbed Big Pink in West Saugerties, New York in 1967.

No, what I think about is the scene in 2003’s Festival Express—a documentary about the financially ill-fated but fun for all involved 1970 rock tour that crossed Canada by train—where Rick Danko leads a lounge car full of rock stars (including Janis Joplin and Jerry Garcia) in a wonderfully wasted rendition of “Ain’t No More Cane (On the Brazos).” Danko is so gloriously fucked-up, and his crazed smile and arm-waving performance so full of joy, that it seems the embodiment of the spirit of The Band itself, whose ensemble playing brimmed over with high spirits, camaraderie, and the sheer joy of making music.

The Band—whose country and Motown-tinged roots rock and wonderful songs filled with colorful characters conjured up the topsy-turvy spirit of a mythical and long-lost America—released only one live album during its original incarnation, 1972’s double-live Rock of Ages. Recorded during a triumphant four-night stint at NYC’s Academy of Music as 1971 came to a close, Rock of Ages featured The Band supplemented by a five-piece horn section arranged by New Orleans’ Allen Toussaint, as well as a guest appearance by Bob Dylan. It remains one of rock’s greatest live albums, along with Bob Dylan at Budokan… er, make that Live 1966: The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert and Killdozer’s The Last Waltz, which is not to be confused with another album bearing the same name by a band I can’t think of at the moment.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Bob Moog’s invention of the analog Moog synthesizer ignited an explosion of creativity across the music spectrum. On the classical side, there was Isao Tomita and Wendy Carlos; on the more avant-garde side, such artists as Mort Garson and Craig Leon used the new technology to explore the limits of sound production while rockers like Keith Emerson incorporated the technology into their music.

And, of course, there was also a silly pop side to the synth mania, or “moogsploitation” as some wags put it; albums by The Moog Machine, The Happy Moog, and other similarly-entitled acts provide good examples of that. But the one man straddling all these camps was Gershon Kingsley. Kingsley studied with John Cage before making a pair of groundbreaking albums with fellow electronic music pioneer Jean-Jacques Perry (their “Baroque Hoedown” was the theme for the Main Street Electrical Parade attractions in Walt Disney theme parks).

Kingsley then embarked on a solo career and scored an instant hit with this album, 1968’s Music to Moog By, and its signature track, “Pop Corn.” “Popcorn” (one word) became an international smash for Hot Butter four years later, but Music to Moog By also caught consumer ears with its blend of originals, classical, and especially versions of Beatles tunes (though you will have to excuse the egregious misspelling of “Paperback Writer” as “Paperback Rider”)!

Ever in pursuit of pop music’s most eccentric manifestations, we at Real Gone are proud to reissue Music to Moog By for the first time in the US, complete with the 8-page “The Book of Moog” that was inside some original copies.

Guitarist Mike Baggetta, bassist Mike Watt, and drummer Stephen Hodges comprise the trio mssv. Their latest LP is On and On, available now on vinyl in an edition of 500 copies and digital through BIG EGO Records. The digital release offers eight tracks and the LP adds six band-improvised link pieces to the eight selections to create two continuous and sweetly psychedelic album sides. The vividly twisted cover art by John Herndon of Tortoise complements these atmospheres very nicely. mssv is currently touring and play tonight 4/3 in Washington, DC at the Pearl Street Warehouse.

mssv describe themselves as a post-genre power trio. This essentially means they roam around a lot stylistically, which fits given the band’s diversity of background. Baggetta comes from the jazz scene where he’s part of a contemporary guitar renaissance of sorts. Hodges has recorded extensively as a session drummer with recurring credits in the discographies of Tom Waits and Mavis Staples. And Watt is the highest profile member of mssv, having played a crucial role in the Minutemen, fIREHOSE, and the reunited Stooges plus solo work and additional band projects and session gigs of his own.

Naturally, there is some overlap in the backgrounds that’s pertinent to the formation of mssv. Hodges was one third of the band that recorded Watt’s 1997 album Contemplating the Engine Room. Guitarist Nels Cline completed the Engine Room trio; he joined mssv for a 2-song 45 released in 2022. Most importantly, in 2019 Baggetta and Watt cut the Wall of Flowers album with Jim Keltner on drums. Keltner doesn’t tour, so Hodges stepped in for the live shows, which resulted in Live Flowers, a 2019 CD credited to main steam stop valve (or mssv for short).

From there, mssv has cut three studio full-lengths, Main Steam Stop Valve (2020), Human Reaction (2023), and now, On and On. Two additional 45s, “Media Kittens” b/w “When the Hoarding Has Ended” (2020) and “The Scott Aicher EP” (2021) complete the mssv discography. Baggetta, Keltner, and Watt also released a second album, Everywhen You Go (2022).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Varèse Sarabande and Craft Recordings announce deluxe reissues for Blade and Blade II, from prolific composers Mark Isham and Marco Beltrami. Debuting on vinyl for the first time, both soundtracks—equally celebrated as unique contributions to the film canon—will be released in multiple unique color variants.

Releasing on May 16th and available for pre-order today, these classic scores will be pressed on “Bloodbath” red vinyl exclusively via Barnes & Noble, and “Blood Splatter” clear and black translucent vinyl in a limited-edition run of 500 on the Varèse Sarabande store. Both scores will be available as 2-LP gatefold packages with brand-new artwork by acclaimed illustrator Micha Huigen. Directed for the big screen by effects artist turned filmmaker Stephen Norrington (Death Machine) and written by Dark City’s David S. Goyer (with uncredited assistance from David Fincher, who originally intended to direct), 1998’s Blade tapped into the Goth Avenger vein of the adaptations of The Crow and Spawn.

Like those undead superheroes out to decimate their killers, Blade moved in the shadows of a big city built from eerily sleek visuals and Hong Kong—influenced action, as powered by the relentless beat of the era’s youth-appealing indie, grunge, and electronica bands.

At first offered to The Prodigy, Blade’s score eventually went to Mark Isham, whose origin as a jazz trumpeter didn’t suggest the most predictable fit. It was, though, Isham’s Southwestern gothic score for 1986’s The Hitcher that marked him as a musician worthy of this daunting task.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Following the Eagles’ groundbreaking residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Rhino will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Don Henley’s Inside Job with a newly remastered version on May 23. Henley’s fourth solo album will be reissued in multiple configurations, including a 180g 2-LP, 1CD, and digital versions. Pre-order/pre-save HERE. Giving audiences a preview of what to expect, the newly remastered version of “Taking You Home” is available today, digitally.

Inside Job initially arrived on May 23, 2000. Upon release, it bowed at #7 on the Billboard 200, notching Henley’s highest debut as a solo artist. The album went on to earn a Platinum certification from the RIAA. The lead single, “Taking You Home,” catapulted to #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart and remains one of the album’s signature songs. Henley co-produced Inside Job with longtime collaborator Stan Lynch, delivering standouts such as “Everything Is Different Now” and “For My Wedding.” The reissue of Inside Job follows 2024 reissues of I Can’t Stand Still (1982), Building The Perfect Beast (1984), and Cass County (2015).

Best known as co-founder of the legendary rock band, the Eagles, as well as an influential solo artist, Don Henley has maintained an extraordinary commitment to music and various philanthropic efforts throughout his career, including a dedication to environmental issues and artists’ rights. Raised in a small East Texas town, Henley was drawn to the sounds of exotic music broadcast from distant radio stations in New Orleans, Nashville, and Ciudad Acuna, Mexico. These stations introduced him to the blues, bluegrass, gospel, jazz, and rock and roll, paving the way for his future as an artist.

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My Morning Jacket has been building a following for years and must now be considered one of the few great rock bands with any real visibility on the scene today. While rock seems to continue to wither and die, My Morning Jacket is only growing stronger.

Hailing from Louisville, Kentucky in the late ’90s, the group recorded two albums for the indie Darla label before moving to ATO with It Still Moves in 2003. After three more albums, ATO became part of Capitol, which released the group’s The Waterfall album in 2015. It would be five years before Waterfall II, which was quickly followed the next year by a self-titled album. The group’s main singer and songwriter Jim James also released other albums in that period, including four idiosyncratic and artsy solo albums between 2013 and 2018, with two of them released in 2018.

My Morning Jacket’s music is hard to describe. The group has a somewhat expansive psychedelic sound and an organic and improvisational live-in-the-studio approach that has appeal for lovers of jam bands. Like such old-school American cult faves as the Grateful Dead, R.E.M., and the Flaming Lips, which turned into popular legends by creating their own self-sustaining musical communities, the group is focused on making music on its own terms and slowly building a following. Unlike those groups, it has had a consistently changing lineup, that now includes only two original members, James and Tom Blankenship.

The band’s passionate, idiosyncratic, and heady sound makes for serious listening, but its newest album, its tenth and first in four years, seems like a bid for a larger audience with the production work of Brendan O’Brien. While the group has worked with the likes of John Leckie and Joe Chiccarelli in the past, this seems like their most focused studio effort. There were three singles that preceded the album, which is unusual for the group, and the final ten songs were whittled down from 100 demos. All the songs were written by James.

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On April 4, veteran UK post-punkers The Nightingales, led as ever by vocalist Robert Lloyd, return with The Awful Truth, an appropriately bent reaction to the sorry state of the world. It’s available on red vinyl and compact disc from Fire Records. Joining Lloyd in The Nightingales are Andreas Schmid on bass, Fliss Kitson on drums, and James Smith on guitar.

Formed in 1979, The Nightingales rose from the ashes of The Prefects, an exquisitely amateurish first wave punk outfit noted for their inclusion on the White Riot tour of The Clash and for playing with UK punk heavyweights Buzzcocks, The Damned, The Fall, and The Slits. The Prefects didn’t get a record out until after they’d broken up, but The Nightingales managed three full-lengths, three EPs, and seven singles during the first stretch of their existence, which lasted until 1987 amid a slew of personnel changes. Recommencing activity in 2004, the sole constant has been vocalist Robert Lloyd.

In their initial run, The Nightingales pulled off an impressive feat, increasing in competence without softening their sound for the mainstream, instead leaning into a bold strain of post-punk, often with a raw, wild edge, and with nods to indie pop and the UK DIY scene. This made them John Peel favorites. All three of the ’80s full lengths, Pigs on Purpose (1982), Hysterics (1983), and In the Good Old Country Way (1986) have been reissued by Fire subsidiary Call of the Void.

The Nightingales haven’t floundered in their return to action (Lloyd seems to have gotten the misstep out of his system with a 1990 major label solo album Me and My Mouth). And this second stretch of Nightingales action has reinforced similarities to fellow punk-era survivors with an edge The Membranes and The Mekons. Deepening a connection to The Mekons, The Awful Truth’s opener “The New Emperor’s New Clothes” is a spirited stomper with viola in the mix.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “A triumph of creativity, imagination, and spirit.” —Classic Rock Magazine

Few albums in Gong’s discography capture the band’s whimsical, irreverent take on life’s complexities and the enigma of death as vividly as 2014’s I See You. Now, the legendary psychedelic collective mark a decade since the release with a brand-new 10th Anniversary Edition on Kscope. Set for release on Kscope on May 9th, the new edition has been remixed from the original multi-track recordings by Frank Byng, producer and sound engineer of the last four Gong albums.

This milestone reissue celebrates not only the existential beauty of Gong’s music, but also the enduring legacy of frontman and visionary Daevid Allen, whose boundless creativity continues to resonate with fans worldwide. I See You was the final studio album featuring Daevid Allen before his passing in 2015 and stands as a testament to his vibrant spirit and revolutionary ethos. Infused with the anarchic energy that defined Gong’s origins in the 1968 Paris counterculture movement, I See You takes its place as one of the finest gems in the band’s heroic catalogue.

“Daevid Allen’s final album, I See You is such a transitional Gong record in so many ways, not that any of us realised it at the time. Work on the album had just commenced around the time I was asked to join and Daevid was in fine health but by the time we were at the mixing stage he was undergoing intense treatment for his cancer which would ultimately prove unsuccessful.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “Underground” is a relative term. One could argue that all the ‘60s San Francisco psychedelic bands were underground, because the music they made was so far removed from the pop and rock sounds that came before them.

But of all the bands in the scene, Lamb was perhaps the most underground of them all. It wasn’t just that their blend of rock, folk, classical, country, blues, and gospel was as hard to classify as any of the era. It was also their vibe. Along with classically trained guitarist and songwriting partner Bob Swanson, Barbara Mauritz’s versatile vocals paced material often imbued with a haunting, mystical aura. Yet they could also be earthy and rootsy, occasionally drifting into spacey psychedelia with hints of raga-rock.

Released in the early ‘70s, Lamb’s first two albums, A Sign of Change and Cross Between, did indeed offer some of the most intriguing and eclectic music of any San Francisco rock band on the psychedelic scene. But Lamb’s history predated the release of those records by a good couple of years or so.

So prolific were Mauritz and Swanson that quite a few of their original compositions didn’t make it onto their albums, though these were often on par with the songs that did find official release. Unlike many bands of the time who had a bounty of surplus quality tunes, Lamb often taped these in studios and studio-like rehearsal conditions, as well as making some professional tapes of their live performances.

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Remembering Ronnie Lane, born on this date in 1946. —Ed.

In 1972 French-Canadian actor Alexis Kanner approached Faces’ bassist and vocalist Ronnie Lane about composing the soundtrack for the film Mahoney’s Last Stand, which I’ve never seen but from what I’ve read about it sounds like a non-comedic Green Acres. Lane accepted and enlisted Faces guitarist Ron Wood to join the project, then recruited a lot of whizz-bang rock and roll talent as farm hands. The result is this 1972 LP, which oozes a rustic charm that more than makes up for its lack of lofty ambition. This is the sound of musicians hanging out and having fun, and producing some very likable off-the-cuff music while they’re at it.

Lane—who succumbed in 1997 to multiple sclerosis at the tragically young age of 51—was the heart (he had a huge one) and soul (he oozed the stuff) of the Faces. Rod Stewart got the attention—too much of it towards the end—but Ronnie embodied the band’s rambunctious approach to rock and roll and wrote (or co-wrote) some of the band’s most endearing and poignant songs, including “Ooh La La,” “Glad and Sorry,” and “Debris.”

And that doesn’t include the great songs he produced for the Small Faces and his wonderful 1977 collaboration with Pete Townshend, Rough Mix. As for Ron Wood, he exemplified the shambolic and always joyous spirit of the Faces as well, and I’ll argue to my dying day that he did (by far) his best work with them. He may be better remembered for his years with the Rolling Stones, but I would gladly trade it all for the jet engine guitar he plays on “Stay with Me” and his down-to-earth vocal turn on “Ooh La La.”

The motley crew who played on the sessions for the film score included the likes of Townshend, Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan, R&R saxophone legend Bobby Keys, Blind Faith and Traffic bassist Ric Grech, Rolling Stones’ road manager and pianist Ian Stewart, Faces (and later Who) drummer Kenney Jones, trumpet player Jim Price, Grease Band/Fairport Convention drummer Bruce Rowland and various other odds and sods. Conspicuous by his absence was Rod Stewart—Lane was justifiably angry at the time with Stewart’s rapidly fading interest in the Faces due to his solo success, and he was particularly galled by the fact that the Faces were increasingly being looked upon as Stewart’s backing band.

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