The new B-52's box set arrives in Portlandia

One For The Weekend: Vibration Black Finger

"Get Up and Do It" is off Vibration Black Finger's new Gaudi EP out now on Enid Records.

RIP CeDell Davis, 1927-2017

Remembering Arkansas blues great CeDell Davis with the Blues Back Home documentary.

Preview Ikebe Shakedown's new album The Way Home

There were only 750 copies pressed of Ikebe Shakedown's bumpin' fourth album – better move quick.  

Wealthy art types explain NYC street culture: Rammellzee

Watch Sotheby's Eric Shiner & Harrison Tenzer chat about Rammellzee's contribution to Afro-futurism.

Wróblewski Jazz Quintet vs. José Prates

Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski's Polish jazz crew does a fine job with José Prates' Brazilian swinger Nana Imboro.

Happy Birthday John Gilmore!

Remembering saxophone great John Gilmore on his day with a rare 1965 clip with the Jazz Messengers.

Watch The Limiñanas video for "Istanbul is Sleepy" w/ Anton Newcombe

The Limiñanas "Istanbul is Sleepy" 4-song EP is out November 17th with ace artwork by Thierry Guitard.

Here's the story behind the Anton Newcombe collabo...
"'Istanbul Is Sleepy' is like the classic dream where you become the hero, the Captain Blood or Midnight Sultan – the one who rescues and seduces Maureen O’Hara or Ava Gardner," explains Lionel Limiñana about recording with the Brian Jonestown Massacre mainman. "Anton is singing and playing guitar on the track. He was inspired, in particular, by The Cult during their ‘Rain’ period. Last year, Mojo magazine asked us to record a cover for a special Kinks tribute. We chose ‘Two Sisters’. Marie and I were thinking for the vocal part it would be great to approach Anton Newcombe, having opened for The Brian Jonestown Massacre at Le Trianon in Paris. The work began like that. We had an album to record and we decided to finish it with him. During the Christmas week we took our demos, flew to Berlin and recorded at Anton’s studio. Six days later we had a finished album.”

Antone Newcombe added, "I really enjoyed work from scratch with The Limiñanas to create this song. From the composition phase to the way of singing on the track, I had the idea of singing like David Bowie, singing like Iggy Pop who try to sing like David Bowie... It was really exciting to take part of all the creative process of this record." Watch the video below.

Lionel et Marie make a splashy London debut with DJ Andy Weatherall on October 5. 

That time Daniel Johnston sang Devil Town in Hamilton

Here's Daniel leading the crowd at The Underground in an a cappella version of Devil Town on May 8, 2007.

The Spits @ The Velvet Underground, Tuesday

The Spits will be joined by School Damage and Plasmalab. Doors open at 8:30 pm.

Happy Birthday Sam Rivers

Remembering the great Sam Rivers on his day with a 1979 performance joined by Dave Holland & Thurman Barker. 

Watch Nucleus live in 1972

Here's Ian Carr with Dave McRae (keys), Karl Jenkins (oboe), Roy Babbington (bass) and Alan Jackson (drums).

Happy birthday Jack "Mr. Bongo" Costanzo!

Celebrating Jack Costanzo's 98th birthday with a 1955 clip featuring one of his more famous percussion students. 

One For The Weekend: Wildflower

The Wildflower debut of Leon Brichard, Tom Skinner and Idris Rahman is sold out on vinyl but you can hear it below.

Happy Birthday John Coltrane!

Toasting Trane with a hard swingin' performance of Franz Lehár's Vivias recorded live at Birdland on March 6, 1963.

Happy 60th Birthday Nick Cave!

Here's a rare Bad Seeds clip from a 9:30 Club performance in Washington, DC on February 8, 1989. 

Whaddya mean you don't know Snapped Ankles

Check out this rarely seen footage of Snapped Ankles in their natural habitat somewhere in Brighton.

Robyn Hitchcock @ The Drake Hotel, Thursday & Friday

Red Rocket fan Robyn Hitchcock is back in town for two nights. Here's Autumn Sunglasses off  his fab new album.

Rare footage of Max Roach w/ Billy Harper live in Norway

Billy and Max were joined by Cecil Bridgewater and Reggie Workman for this 1977 performance in Molde. 

Mike Judge's Tales From The Tour Bus debuts September 22

 The legends of George Jones, Billy Joe Shaver & others are the raw material for Mike Judge's new Cinemax series.

Andy Kim and Foreigner appear in Broken Social Scene's Skyline video

Andy Kim is apparently committed to both peanut butter and his friends in Broken Social Scene.

Watch the Stranger Cole documentary Ruff and Tuff

The short but enlightening film explores the entrepreneurial Jamaican singer/producer's time in Toronto. 

Ruff and Tuff
Jamaican Ska and Reggae legend Stranger Cole moved to Toronto in the early 1970s leaving stardom behind. Despite his talent he was forced to work at the Tonka Toy factory and as a security guard at Eaton's to make a living. He eventually established the first Caribbean business in Kensington Market - a record store and label at 58 Kensington Ave. Some 40 years later,  Stranger Cole took some time off from his busy tour schedule to visit his old neighbourhood. Watch Chris Flanagan and Graeme Mahieson's mini-doc Ruff and Tuff below followed by a video for Stranger Cole's latest recording "Step Up" with the Kingston All Stars.

The Jackets @ Montreal's Divan Orange, Friday

Don't miss Swiss garage rippers The Jackets play a rare Canadian date with Les Envahisseurs & The Dirtbags. 

Yep Roc readies "re-imagined reissue" of classic Cajun/zydeco comp

Yep Roc's new version of Swampland Jewels – out Sept 22 – comes with the iconic original Goldband sleeve art. 

Inspired by the original Swampland Jewels LP  on Goldband Records in 1979, and the expanded CD reissue from '91, Yep Roc's 19-track alternate version of the classic anthology of vintage Cajun, zydeco, rock ‘n roll and R&B music from East Texas and Southwest Louisiana hits the streets on September 22.

Now available for pre-order with an instant download of Cleveland Crochet's jukebox fave “Sugar Bee,” Swampland Jewels is the first full-length from Yep Roc Records partnership with the Southern Folklife Collection at the Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Produced by Steven Weiss, Curator at the Southern Folklife Collection, and remastered from the original tapes by Brent Lambert at The Kitchen Mastering in Carrboro, NC, the compilation features tracks drawn from the original LP and CD releases, along with seven newly discovered recordings, liner notes by Weiss on the history of Goldband Records and founder Eddie Shuler. Fans of the 1979 release will be relieved to hear that the folks at Yep Roc had the good sense to go with Goldband's goofy-great original crawfish ridin' sleeve art.

On October 1, a live performance event will be held at the Arts Center in Carrboro, NC. Featuring a lecture by Cajun music scholar Barry Jean Ancelet (University of Louisiana, Lafayette), the event will also include performances by Jo-El Sonnier, a featured performer on the compilation, and Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys.

After comparing the two-track album master of the original ‘70s release to the album master, Weiss decided to rebuild the compilation from the high-resolution transfers of the un-overdubbed original session tapes. The release retains as much of the raw element as possible while keeping the dynamic range of recordings, which were recorded live, straight-to-tape, without overdubs.

“I researched the Goldband collection to find the original single or session masters for all the songs,” says Weiss. “It was a thrill hearing the raw recordings with studio talk, count-ins and unissued takes that captured the way Eddie worked and the immediacy of studio recordings in the 1950s and ‘60s. The original tapes also captured a strong sense of place.”

While hopeful to recreate the original LP track list, Weiss was unable to find acceptable masters for some of the tracks that would match the sound quality of the new transfers. Notably absent on the new release are Joe Bonsall's version of Jolie Blon,  Jay Stutes' take of Kaw-Liga, Robert Bertrand's Jambalaya and Iry LeJeune's Evangeline Special. In place of those tracks, he chose newly discovered songs that matched the scope and feel of what he felt was Eddie Shuler’s original intent. Much like the early ‘90s CD reissue, this re-imagined reissue of Swampland Jewels features an expanded track list (see below). Somewhat oddly, the new set doesn't include any tracks by the hugely popular LeJeune who played a key role in returning the accordion to prominence in cajun music of the late 40s and early 50s. To find out what you're missing, hunt down the excellent Iry LeJeune – The Definitive Collection compiled by John Broven and issued by the UK-based Ace label without the ludicrous electric bass overdubs added posthumously by Shuler.

One of the most vital and important documentarians of endemic southern music in the 20th century, Goldband Records was located in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and produced recordings of some of the South’s most important and distinctive musical styles and sounds, including Cajun, zydeco, blues, rhythm and blues, rockabilly, and swamp pop. For years, fans, collectors and scholars have lamented the use of later overdubs Eddie Shuler employed on the original LP release in order to update the original ‘50s and ‘60s recordings for the late-‘70s marketplace.

In the mid-90s, the Southern Folklife Collection acquired the archives of Goldband Records, which included sound recordings covering the label’s 50-year history. Moldy and in need of extensive cleaning before they could be digitized for preservation and access, the Goldband tapes required thousands of hours of repair. Through a series of grants from the GRAMMY Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, all recordings were cleaned and digitized, preserving the content and making the recordings accessible for research and release.

Digitized by the Southern Folklife Collection staff engineers Brian Paulson and John Loy using modern open reel tape decks optimized with custom playback heads for archival work, the audio was captured at a high-resolution bit depth/sample rate of 24bit/96kHz. The end result of this work revealed content of never-before-heard tapes in high quality and many hours of unreleased takes.



Swampland Jewels
“Paper In My Shoe” – Boozoo Chavis – on original LP and CD, new remix from original master
“Boss Cajun” – Shorty LeBlanc – on original LP and CD, new remix from original master
“Fee Fee Poncho” – Sidney Brown and Jo-El Sonnier – on original LP and CD, new remix from original master
“Sugar Bee” – Cleveland Crochet and Jay Stutes – on original LP and CD, new remix from original master
“You’re So Fine”- Pee Wee Kershaw – new to collection
“My Girl of the Village” – Sidney Brown and Jo-El Sonnier – new to collection
“La Cuca Rochman” – Joe Bonsall – on original LP and CD, new unreleased edit
“Good Morning Blues” – Cleveland Crochet and Jay Stutes – on original LP and CD, new previously unreleased edit, remastered from original single master
“My Little Cabbage” – Shorty LeBlanc – on original LP and CD, remastered from original master
“Yard Dog” – Al Ferrier – on original LP and CD, remastered from original master
“Telephone Won’t Ring” – Boozoo Chavis – new to collection
“La Valse de Bo Sparkle” – LeRoy Broussard – new to collection
“Creole Song” – Joe Bonsall – new to collection
“Always There” – Geno Thibodeaux and Robert Bertrand –  on original CD release, new remix by Brian Paulson
“My Blue Letter” – Jo-El Sonnier – on original CD release, new remix
“Lemonade Song” – LeRoy Broussard – new to collection
“Mois Cinquantas Sous (My Fifty Cents)” – Jo-El Sonnier & Robert Bertrand – on original CD release, alternate take, remastered from original master
“Bon Ton Roula” – Herman Guiee – on original CD release, remastered from original master
“Pauve Hobo (Poor Hobo)” – Joe Bonsall – new to collection

RIP Harry Dean Stanton, 1926-2017

Remembering the amazing Harry Dean Stanton with a couple of moving performances of Mexican folk classics.

Happy Birthday Julian "Cannonball" Adderley

Remembering saxophone great Cannonball Adderley with a live performance of Brother John.

Souljazz Orchestra vs. Dur-Dur Band

You can hear the Souljazz Orchestra's studio version of "Is Yeelyel" on Under Burning Skies out September 22.

RIP Grant Hart, 1961-2017

Grant Hart, longtime Hüsker Dü drummer, singer and songwriter has passed away after a battle with cancer. 

Tom Waits joins Mavis Staples on stage in Petaluma

Tom Waits turned up to lend Mavis Staples some vocal support on the Staple Singers classic Respect Yourself.

Midweek Mixdown: Nicola Conte

Here's Nicola Conte & Cloud Danko's sweet Love Flower selection of spiritual and Afro jazz.

Watch Don Bryant & The Bo-Keys rock Jazz à la Villette

Here's the full Paris performance of Don Bryant & The Bo-Keys.

Filthy Friends vs. Roxy Music

Listen to Filthy Friends take on Bryan Ferry and company in the battle of Editions of You. 

Far Out label uncovers lost Hermeto Pascoal session from 1976

Recorded at Rogério Duprat's studio, the '76 session captures Brazilian maestro Hermeto Pascoal at his creative peak. 

According to the Far Out announcement...

There have been few musicians to ever reach the stature of Hermeto Pascoal. A true maestro and a cultural icon, he represents the highest level of musical evolution; as a multi-instrumentalist, as a composer and as an arranger. Once described by Miles Davis as “the most impressive musician in the world”, there is good reason (beyond his Gandalf-like appearance) why he is known as "O Bruxo" (the Wizard).

For the label’s 200th release, Far Out Recordings proudly presents a previously unreleased album by Hermeto Pascoal and his ‘Grupo Vice Versa’: Viajando Com O Som (the lost ’76 Vice Versa Studio Sessions).

Recorded in just two days in 1976, at Rogério Duprat's Vice Versa Studios , São Paulo, the sessions featured Hermeto’s go-to ‘Paulista’ rhythm section of the day: Zé Eduardo Nazario (drums), Zeca Assumpção (bass) and Lelo Nazario (electric piano), as well as saxophonists Mauro Senise, Raul Mascarenhas and Nivaldo Ornelas, guitarist Toninho Horta and vocalist Aleuda Chaves. Hermeto decided he would record with this particular group following a show at Teatro Bandeirantes, during which an almost spiritual musical connection amongst the group was realized. The performance lasted hours, without any breaks, and Hermeto saw the potential for his compositions to reach a ‘higher level’ as the music organically moved from structured compositions to ‘freer’ improvisational works.

In the studio, the sound engineer Renato Viola understood that things needed to happen quickly. Almost everything recorded on the first take ended up staying in the final mix. After the mixdown, Lelo Nazario would ask Renato to make him a copy of all the material, from machine to machine. As far as we know, the master tape eventually got lost over time, but Lelo kept his copy in his studio’s archives, where it stayed for over forty years.

With the tape rescued and restored, this release fills a void in time. Recorded at an especially experimental period in Hermeto’s career, it’s a compelling insight into the incredible efforts of this group, who under Hermeto’s revolutionary vision, created a unique musical language which would have a profound influence on countless artists to come.

Nowadays, the 1970s is indeed considered a golden age of Brazilian music, but it’s often forgotten how desperately hard it was for artists to get their music past the military dictatorship’s censorship efforts throughout the decade. Yet in 1976, despite the often musically radical nature of Hermeto Pascoal’s compositions, he was in a typically productive phase of his career. The year before the release of his seminal album Slaves Mass, ‘76 saw Hermeto amass performance credits on Flora Purim’s ‘Open Your Eyes You Can Fly’, OPA’s ‘Goldenwings’ and Cal Tjader’s ‘Amazonas’ to name just a few.

The release of Viajando Com O Som re-writes the already remarkable story of one of the world’s most supernaturally talented musicians, whilst illuminating a truly magical, yet hitherto lost and forgotten, moment of Brazilian musical history.

Singer/songwriter deluxe Tom Russell releases Folk Hotel

Tom salutes Lightnin' Hopkins &Dylan Thomas and sings a duet with Joe Ely on his new album out now

One For The Weekend: The Sadies

Check out the new video for The Sadies' Through Strange Eyes. Group portrait courtesy of Jeremy Bruneel.

Antibalas, A Man Called Warwick @ The Mod Club, Friday

Check out the Antibalas cover of "Heaven (Is Not For Everyone)" not on their new album Where The Gods Are In Peace.

Record shopping with Neil Young in 1972

Neil's unreleased Hitchhiker album is out Friday. The cover shot could've been taken while looking for records. 

Tommy Stinson's post-Replacements debut gets deluxe reissue treatment

Omnivore's reissue of Bash & Pop's Friday Night Is Killing Me comes with a bonus disc of demos & rarities – like this.

Watch Ted Leo's K-Tel inspired video for Can't Go Back

Full marks to director Rachel Lichtman for getting the proper 70s TV ad look for Ted's new clip (below). 

The Hanged Man LP is out September 8. Ted Leo plays Lee's Palace September 19.

RIP Holger Czukay, 1938-2017

Sadly, Can co-founder Holger Czukay died at Inner Space Studio in Weilerswist. Here's a 2014 interview.

Lonesome Ace Stringband @ Imperial Pub, Wednesday

Max Heineman, Chris Coole and John Showman launch their Wednesday night residency tonight at 8 pm. 

Watch the Dream Syndicate's video for Filter Me Through You

The Dream Syndicate's How Did I Find Myself Here album is out Sept. 8. And yes, that's a 1968 Bonneville. 

New Hüsker Dü set explores Minneapolis trio's punk roots

Numero's 3CD/4LP Savage Young Dü box boasts 47 unreleased tracks from the original analog tapes. Stream it here. 

Hüsker Dü – Savage Young Dü

DISC 1
1. “Do You Remember?”
2. “Sore Eyes”
3. “Can’t See You Anymore”
4. “Picture Of You”
5. “The Truth Hurts”
6. “Do The Bee”
7. “Nuclear Nightmare”
8. “All I’ve Got To Lose Is You”
9. “Chinese Rocks”
10. “Uncle Ron”
11. “Data Control”
12. “Insects Rule The World”
13. “You’re Too Obtuse”
14. “Outside”
15. “Sexual Economics”
16. “What Went Wrong”
17. “Statues”
18. “Amusement”
19. “Writer’s Cramp”
20. “Let’s Go Die”
21. “Walk With The Wounded”
22. Industrial Grocery Store”

DISC 2
1. “Drug Party”
2. “Call On Me”
3. “Termination”
4. “I’m Tired Of Doing Things”
5. “Stick It To Me”
6. “Wheels”
7. “All Tensed Up”
8. “Don’t Try To Call”
9. “I’m Not Interested”
10. “Guns At My School”
11. “Push The Button”
12. “Gilligan’s Island”
13. “MTC”
14. “Don’t Have A Life”
15. “You’re Naive”
16. “Strange Week”
17. “Big Sky”
18. “Ultracore”
19. “Let’s Go Die”
20. “Won’t Say A Word”
21. “Don’t Try It”
22. “Private Hell”
23. “Diane”
24. “Sex Dolls”

DISC 3
1. “In A Free Land”
2. “What Do I Want?”
3. “M.I.C.”
4. “Target”
5. “Signals From Above”
6. “From The Gut”
7. “Blah, Blah, Blah”
8. “Punch Drunk”
9. “Bricklayer”
10. “Afraid Of Being Wrong”
11. “Sunshine Superman”
12. “Signals From Above”
13. “Everything Falls Apart”
14. “Wheels”
15. “Target”
16. “Obnoxious”
17. “Gravity”
18. “Do You Remember?”
19. “Travel In Opposite Car”
20. “It’s Not Funny Anymore”
21. “Real World”
22. “Out On A Limb”
23. “It’s Not Fair”