October 7th, 2025
‘Everything Louder Than Everything Else’ - Deep Purple Conquers with “Made in Japan” Steven Wilson works his remixing magic on the archetypal hard rock double live albumBy: Dylan Peggin
Deep Purple’s Mark II lineup of Blackmore/Lord/Paice/Gillan/Glover, strayed from the group’s psychedelic origins, adapting to the harder-rocking style of contemporaries like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, which became the pillars of what became heavy metal. Fueled by lengthy and dynamic improvisations, the group was an untamable force on the live stage, something that worked in favor of their reputation and against the notion that it would translate efficiently on... Read More
October 6th, 2025
Rhino High Fidelity Unzips a Flaccid "Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols" kinda softBy: Michael Fremer
Okay, here's my sub mission: I'm spoiled. I have the original 11 track Virgin U.K. release (A2/B1) issued in haste and quickly corrected to the 12 track standard version. You want Steve Jones's snarling, fibrillating singular animal guitar (arguably the glue that holds the record together, created by reproducing his guitar part an octave down as explained in Chris Thomas's notes in this reissue) make your ears sizzle. You want Lydon/Rotten's... Read More
October 3rd, 2025
Zombies "Odessey and Oracle" Always Meant to Be Mono available in mono (in America) for first time in decadesBy: Michael Fremer
If the music wasn't so interesting and singular, the story behind the album recorded in 1967 and released in 1968 would easily be more so. Dumped by Decca after having a string of great singles including "She's Not There", the group self-financed this project, recorded much of it at what later would be called Abbey Road Studios (with some at Olympic), signed to CBS, put out two singles and then this album released April, 1968 a month after the band... Read More
September 23rd, 2025
Deftones "Private Music" Proves Nu-Metal Still Has a Future The band's 10th album is one of their bestBy: Michael Johnson
Last month, Sacramento Nu-Metal band Deftones dropped their 10th studio album Private Music. Coincidentally, this album also marks nearly 30 years since their debut LP Adrenaline released in 1995. Deftones have come a long way in 30 years, and their longevity is rare, especially for a band associated with a style of music that mostly died off in the mid 2000s. But part of their staying power has been the musical creativity that has long elevated the group far above... Read More
September 22nd, 2025
Tom Petty "Wildflowers" One-Step Is it That Much Better? double 33 1/3, pressed on Neotech VR900-D2 vinylBy: Michael Fremer
To be brief: compared to the version included in the deluxe box set of a few years ago, this re-mastered One-Step version cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering sounds soooo much better, it's kind of ridiculous.I took it to my friend Anthony Chiarella's (he's CEO of Specialty Sound & Vision, which distributes Gryphon among other products) and played it on his system during a meeting of the New York/N.J. Audio club and the reaction in the... Read More
September 15th, 2025
Elvis At RCA Studio C Hollywood Celebrated On A Double LP Set 5 CD set for obsessed completistsBy: Michael Fremer
If you were a suburban white kid of a certain age and remember when Elvis appeared, seemingly from outer space, everything in your world changed (unless your parents were into Black music). Of course there was an Ed Sullivan, Steve Allen, and Milton Berle show "pre-reel" that you may have caught, but this person looked and sounded like no one else you'd ever seen before on television and it didn't appear to be an act. Even when Elvis goofed around... Read More
September 15th, 2025
Led Zeppelin Commemorates 50 Years of “Physical Graffiti” with a Commemorative “Live EP” A full Earls Court ‘75 release? Nope, just rehashing what’s already out!By: Dylan Peggin
The lack of archival Led Zeppelin releases in recent years makes the divided 2014-15 remaster campaign, complemented with unreleased studio rarities, a treasure trove in hindsight. Scholarly knowledge of seasoned collectors on what’s presumed to exist in the archives and what’s leaked in bootleg circles makes the group a no-brainer candidate for being one of rock’s most preserved acts. Nonetheless, Jimmy Page’s itch for perfectionism has left so little released in the... Read More
August 28th, 2025
'Argus' Marches Off from Analogue Productions Sean Magee's 45 RPM treatment for Analogue Productions polishes the helmet of Wishbone Ash's defining LPBy: Abigail Devoe
Wishbone Ash’s Argus was made in rock-and-roll’s golden age; when labels pelted fistfuls of money at any band with guitars, bass, drums, someone who could shake a tambourine, and someone who could sing harmony. This is evidenced by a minor-gods-canon band like Wishbone Ash getting the esteemed honor of a Hipgnosis cover. Assistant Bruce Atkins was dressed up in a costume borrowed from The Devils and posed over the Verdon Gorge in France. When folding out the jacket,... Read More
August 25th, 2025
Strong(er) Moonlight POST-PUNK CLASSIC GETS 45TH ANNIVERSARY AAA REISSUEBy: JoE Silva
Where, in 1980, was there room for The Soft Boys? The U.S. charts were distended with the dregs of Disco while England was being detained by the onset of synthpop. No one particularly wanted to know about a band of Cambridge smarties who wrote songs that sounded as if they’d be drawn from a tincture of Yves Tanguy.Still, they had their admirers. And when Robyn Hitchcock leant starboard towards a solo career, most of them disembarked with him. That left two albums and... Read More
August 24th, 2025
"Fleetwood Mac" Gets Rhino High Fidelity Edition a band no longer singing the bluesBy: Michael Fremer
The Buckingham-Nicks, Fleetwood Mac hook-up post the Bob Welch exit created a monster rock group but it took more than a year following the July, 1975 release for Fleetwood Mac to reach No. 1. Fans of the original blues group Fleetwood Mac were mostly disenchanted if not disgusted (my wife), but this group's success cannot be denied. It gave 1975 rockers what they wanted and at this point why it did is a waste of time to reiterate.If you think this release is a... Read More
August 22nd, 2025
Grace Bergere Is A New York Rocker Extraordinaire you want it even darker?By: Michael Fremer
First thought upon seeing Grace Bergere's cover portrait was "punk Ida Lupino" but that's not a good way to start a review since how many readers today know Ida Lupino? So let's just say a young woman with an attitude. A dark attitude. And a genuine one. She doesn't look like a poseur. It goes deep. That's before opening and playing the record and reading the lyrics.It's difficult enough in 2025 to pull off a rock record that... Read More
August 15th, 2025
Rhino Goes Regional with “Golden Doors Vol. 2” Japanese-only compilation gets its first stateside releaseBy: Dylan Peggin
The Doors: a group that has more compilations than actual studio releases. Longtime fans will whinge at nauseam when an anniversary passes and the major label earwigs grace record store shelves with another ‘ultimate’ or ‘best of’ collection. Regardless of the oversaturation of releases such as those, it engrains the self-marketed ‘Band from Venice’ in the public’s consciousness, or subjects novices to the Lizard King ethos. Their discography is even more complex when... Read More
August 14th, 2025
Modifying The Dog: Frank Zappa’s ‘One Size Fits All’ At 50 Conceptual continuity comes to Tracking Angle: Zappaverse traveler Abigail Devoe unpacks Chris Bellman’s 50th anniversary remaster of ‘One Size Fits All.’By: Abigail Devoe
1975 was a weird year for pop music. The Captain and Tennille had the best-selling single of the year with “Love Will Keep Us Together.” Meanwhile, Neil Young was parked in the ditch, wasted at the wake on Tonight’s The Night. Just over the guardrail, Bob Dylan returned from his own surreal excursions. Queen released the biggest song of their career. While the Carpenters were snuggled up in their parent-pleasing inoffensive confections, Led Zeppelin dealt blockbuster... Read More
July 28th, 2025
“Classic Love” - A Future Longtime Classic? The new EP from Philadelphia’s self-described ‘constant hitmaker’By: Dylan Peggin
In the heart of the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, just under the Market Street Elevated (‘the el’ as the locals call it), is a mural of text and visual interpretations of songs from a native’s album. That mural alone cements Kurt Vile's place within the city’s culture. Originally from the borough of Lansdowne, Kurt’s career progressed from creating low-fidelity bedroom recordings to the slickest-sounding nuggets from his home studio. Vile’s twist on... Read More
July 23rd, 2025
Turnstile- "Never Enough" Is More Than Enough Grab your board and lace up your shoes, "Turnstile Summer" is underway.By: Michael Johnson
I think I was 18 or 19 years old the first time I heard Title Fight play. I remember standing in the hot summer Texas sun at the Mohawk on Red River street waiting for Converge to play, and all of a sudden this group of unassuming kids in loose-fit denim from Kingston, PA took the stage. They were followed quickly by a cohort of 20 or so teenagers that took over the crowd with the kind of energy that made damn sure everyone knew that we were watching the greatest punk... Read More
July 20th, 2025
Flute, Folk and Flashbacks: Jethro Tull is “Still Living in the Past” The group’s first compilation receives the ‘Steven Wilson remix" treatmentBy: Dylan Peggin
Compilations tend to carry a certain stigma: contractual obligations, a stopgap between releases, executed without consent, or labels ringing every last dollar from a catalog. Some are subject to scrutiny regarding imbalanced tracklists and why certain songs were included or excluded. Regardless of intent, it provides curious fans with an ‘all-in-one’ primer, or sways the diehards with a dull obligation because of one exclusive track. Beyond the generalized view where... Read More
July 20th, 2025
A Vinyl Remaster Of Wolfmother’s 2005 Debut Does Well To Slow Their Ongoing Fade THE DERIVATIVE 2000s HARD ROCKERS FROM DOWN UNDER HAVE NEVER SOUNDED BETTER — FOR WHAT IT’S WORTHBy: Morgan Enos
The Late Show is dead. Long live The Late Show. Last week, CBS announced that its flagship late-night show — launched by David Letterman in 1993 after his departure from NBC’s Late Night, and hosted by Stephen Colbert since 2015 — will end by May of next year. Not just Colbert’s version, which was never quite my bag, but the whole damn thing. Officially, it’s a cost-cutting move, but plenty see political pressure behind it. For me, it’s mostly a marker of time.As a... Read More
July 11th, 2025
Dial Back The Blues, Bring Forward The Marimba - A 20-Year Reflection on the White Stripes’ “Get Behind Me Satan” The duo’s experimental album gets a 'colorful' reissueBy: Dylan Peggin
Of all the groups from the Detroit music scene in the early 2000s, The White Stripes were a group shrouded in enigma. Jack and Meg White played into their mythology, portraying themselves as siblings to distance their reality as ex-spouses in a child-like uniform of red, white, and black regalia. Working within strict limitations couldn’t contain the duo’s explosive sound, which embodied the brash garage rock influence from the Motor City, yet was soaked in bluesy... Read More
July 3rd, 2025
A Fresh Re-mastering of Elliott Smith’s ‘Figure 8’ Rights the Ship After a Lackluster ‘XO’ THIS RE-MASTER OF ‘FIGURE 8’ OPENS UP NEW VISTAS IN THE MUSIC — UNLIKE THE LAST EDITION OF ITS PREDECESSOR, ‘XO’By: Morgan Enos
To peer through the lens of one of Elliott Smith’s key influences for a moment: everyone knows when an artist has made their Rubber Soul, White Album, or Let It Be. Rubber Souls are transitional — exotic, quixotic dispatches from early creative growth spurts. White Albums are post-genre, post-everything info dumps — essentially kits that dare you to build your own record. As for a band’s eventual demise, Let It Bes show the writing on the wall. And then there’s Sgt.... Read More