It has been quite a year for seeing reggae history. Over the past several months, I’ve had the privilege of standing in front of legends including Carlton Livingston, Papa Michigan, Glen DaCosta, Third World, and The Skatalites—the people who built this music and carried it around the world. A run like that deserves an exclamation point. On a Sunday night in Glenside, Pennsylvania, UB40 delivered one—and along the way, changed my mind about a song I thought I already knew by heart.

Forty-eight years after forming in Birmingham, England, UB40 rolled into the Keswick Theatre on September 27 as part of The Unstoppable Tour, and if there was one thing the night proved, it was just how appropriate that tour name really is.

From the opening notes of “Food for Thought,” the band sounded fantastic. Nearly five decades of experience were evident in how effortlessly they moved through the set, but nothing about the performance felt like a group simply going through the motions. Quite the opposite. They were having an absolute blast onstage, feeding off one another with an audience that spent most of the night on its feet, dancing in the aisles and singing along.

The musicianship was exceptional throughout. Founding members Earl Falconer on bass and Jimmy Brown on drums still provide the rock-solid rhythmic foundation at the heart of UB40’s sound, while the two-person horn section of Ian Thompson and Martin Meredith was nearly flawless. Beyond sounding great, the pair were incredibly entertaining to watch, constantly moving and dancing, adding to the infectious energy onstage.

By the third song, “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” the party was officially underway.

Read More »

Celebrating Richard Hell on his 77th birthday. —Ed.

Of New York punk’s first wave, only Richard Hell and the Voidoids truly embraced the nihilism that punk has come to represent in the popular imagination. The Ramones, great as they were, were one step away from being a joke band; Television was far too ascetic and monk-like; and the Talking Heads were too intellectually frigid. As for Patti Smith, she flirted with the idea of anarchy, but was far too positive a soul to be a nihilist. It’s not her fault; nihilists never hail from New Jersey.

I could go on, but I won’t, because the only point I want to make is that Hell was the only musician at that time and place asking the only question the existentialists found pertinent, to wit, “Why should I bother living?” And his grappling with this question—along with the excellence of his band, which included the late, great guitarist Robert Quine—is what makes 1977’s Blank Generation such a seminal punk recording.

Hell, aka Richard Meyers, was born in Kentucky and took the scenic route to the Voidoids. Having moved to New York City, he began his rock career as a member of the Neon Boys, who later became Television. Friction with Television’s Tom Verlaine led Hell to leave and co-found the Heartbreakers with Johnny Thunders, but Hell found it no easier to work with Thunders than he did with Verlaine, so he finally set about establishing a band in which he was boss. The Voidoids—they got their name from a novel Hell was writing—included Hell on vocals and bass, Quine and Ivan Julian on guitars, and Marc Bell on drums.

Read More »

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Paul McCartney’s internationally acclaimed album The Boys of Dungeon Lane will be released as a Special Edition this October, featuring four additional recordings, including a new version of “Home To Us,” his celebrated duet with Ringo Starr, alongside three brand new songs.

The Special Edition announcement comes at a landmark moment for The Boys of Dungeon Lane. Released in May 2026, Paul’s first new solo album in over five years topped the global charts, with Top 5 debuts in more than a dozen countries—including Paul’s 24th UK #1 album across his extraordinary career as a solo artist, with Wings, and as a member of The Beatles. The album has also received widespread international critical acclaim and, in July, was named as one of the 12 prestigious Albums of the Year shortlisted for the 2026 Mercury Prize. The recognition marks Paul McCartney’s first-ever Mercury Prize nomination and sees The Boys of Dungeon Lane recognised alongside some of the most exciting and acclaimed artists and albums of the year.

The forthcoming Special Edition will give fans four more recordings from the world of The Boys of Dungeon Lane, including a new version of “Home To Us,” bringing Paul and Ringo Starr together once again. The track is already one of the album’s most poignant moments, with the two surviving Beatles trading lyrics that carry the weight of their extraordinary shared history while remaining deeply personal and contemporary. The new “flip mix” sees their original parts in the song swapped with each other.

Alongside the new version of “Home To Us,” the Special Edition will feature three brand new songs, titled “City Fox,” “One Night Stand,” and “Chelsea Boots,” offering fans the opportunity to discover more of the music created during the sessions.

Read More »

Plato famously said, “Whenever a horn band is born, there is more misery in the world.” He was speaking specifically about Blood, Sweat & Tears, but his words obviously applied to bands like Electric Flag and Chicago as well.

Big band horn section, pop rock band—aside from Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s wretched classical/rock fusion, I can’t think of a worse example of musical miscegenation. Chicago wasn’t the worst horn section offenders (my vote goes to Blood, Sweat & Tears), but they were certainly the most popular, for the simple reason that they wrote the best songs—1975’s Chicago IX: Chicago’s Greatest Hits is a must-own.

Which isn’t to say that Plato’s words don’t apply—the very existence of the band that began life as Chicago Transit Authority and prominently featured a horn section that included trombone, saxophones, flute, trumpet, and flugelhorn, playing together on meticulous arrangements, couldn’t avoid being a menace to society. As my brother Jeffers put it, “Chicago, horrid stage band bouillabaisse, with words.” And the words! Chicago may have considered themselves part of the counterculture, but their lyrics are a toothless, sloganeering muddle.

And they were dangerously ambitious—their first three releases were double albums, and their fourth, 1971’s Chicago at Carnegie Hall, was a FOUR-LP vinyl box set. Of the last-named Robert Christgau snidely wrote, “I’m not claiming actually to have listened to this four-record set—you think I’m a nut?” After which, he went on to complain about the box set’s lousy packaging.

Read More »

RELEIGH, NC | Some Friday nights get circled on the calendar months in advance, and for the metal faithful of Raleigh, September 25 was one of them. W.A.S.P. rolled the 1984 To Headless tour into The Ritz with KK’s Priest along as very special guests—two bands carrying a serious share of heavy metal history. Nobody walked in expecting a quiet night. Nobody expected just how loud it would get, either.

Raleighwood showed up, and W.A.S.P. and KK’s Priest brought the wall of sound. When I arrived, people had been lining up since a little after lunch, mostly clad in all black, battle vests, and studs, and ready to rock.

KK’s Priest came out and wasted no time, busting out hit after hit with some of the biggest songs first: “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’,” “Breaking the Law,” and “Living After Midnight.” With former Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing leading the charge and Tim “Ripper” Owens on vocals, the band dug deeper into the Priest catalog Downing helped build with “Beyond the Realms of Death,” “Victim of Changes,” and “Turbo Lover,” and mixed in their own “Hellfire Thunderbolt” and “Raise Your Fists.”

The energetic and very loud crowd showed the kind of love usually reserved for the last band of the night. The band mentioned they were recording all the shows, and Raleigh may just be the loudest. There was no doubt that people had been planning for this Friday night for a long time.

Read More »

Remembering Richard Harris, born on this day in 1930. —Ed.

In which a Man Called Horse sings a Song Called Horseshit, and turns it into a megahit. If macho thespian Richard Harris seemed an unlikely singing star, Jimmy Webb’s “MacArthur Park” was an unlikely success, clocking in at around 7:30 minutes at a time when songs played on the radio rarely reached 4 minutes. But that’s not what really makes “MacArthur Park” such an oddity. It’s the bizarre lyrics, which raise questions galore, and the histrionic manner in which Harris sings them that make “MacArthur Park” a piece of kitsch so bad it’s great. Which is to say I may mock it, but I never tire of listening to it. It’s too fucking weird.

Famed songwriter Jimmy Webb has written hundreds of hits for dozens upon dozens of famous musicians, Glen Campbell being a prime recipient of Webb’s largesse. But the songs Webb wrote for Campbell were, well, songs, and not “MacArthur Park,” that fantastical overflow of deep thoughts expressed in the form of surrealistic imagery and incoherent similes. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear Webb was on acid when he wrote it. Hell, maybe he was.

As I said before, the song raises questions, enormous existential questions, questions that call into doubt the very dichotomy between being and nothingness, the most important of which is who is the idiot that left the cake out in the rain in the first place? I mean, who leaves a cake sitting uncovered in a public park? If it hadn’t rained, the rats and squirrels would have gotten it.

Read More »

VIA PRESS RELEASE | On the eve of their headlining performance at The Getty Museum in Los Angeles on Sunday, Bush Tetras are announcing a reissue of Too Many Creeps, their incendiary debut record, first released as a 3-song 7” in 1980 on 99 Records (Liquid Liquid, ESG).

Too Many Creeps was revolutionary in its combination of dance beats, socially conscious lyrics, and Pat Place’s unmistakable guitar sound. The news comes with the release of “Fess Up,” an unreleased song from the Creeps sessions that could have been written in 2026. Here is what frontwoman Cynthia Sley has to say about the track:

“The song was a prescient observation of the gentrification of lower Manhattan that had just begun in 1979. Little did we know how extreme it would get! We all contributed to the lyrics, and it was one of our earliest songs. It definitely reflects how much fun we were having writing songs together.”

The deluxe reissue is extended to 7 songs and serves as the perfect introduction to Bush Tetras. It adds two tracks from the Too Many Creeps sessions: the previously mentioned “Fess Up” and fan favorite “Punch Drunk.” The unreleased “In Mind A Run” was recorded around the same time as the Too Many Creeps sessions, by Patty Palladin (Johnny Thunders, Snatch, The Flying Lizards) in NYC.

Read More »

Remembering Albert Collins, born on this day in 1932. —Ed.

Albert Collins hailed from Texas, and he had the blues. His greatest fame as a guitarist came in the 1980s, but his tenure as a performer and recording artist spanned all the way back to the late ’50s. Truckin’ with Albert Collins serves up a very nice collection of his mid-‘60s work, and it’s chapter one in the story of a major electric blues figure.

It was a long run of albums for Alligator that finally brought Albert Collins sustained and much-deserved recognition. Still, before his association with that long-serving Chicago-based indie, he’d already achieved the status of a Texas master. Along with T-Bone Walker, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Freddie King, and Lightnin’ Hopkins, Collins is an essential component in the Lone Star State’s post-World War II blues progression, and his pre-Alligator material reveals an artistry that thrived on versatility and yet was also quite focused.

However, noting the man’s rise in stature via Bruce Iglauer’s label shouldn’t suggest that Collins was doing his thing under a shroud of total obscurity during the ‘60s, or conversely that the ascension via Alligator was instantaneous (far from it; it was only in the late-‘80s that he was able to pay someone else to drive his tour bus.) The guitarist certainly had his moments during the ‘60s blues boom, and the record that established him as a force was his single for the TCF/Hall label, “Frosty.”

Read More »