Category Archives: The TVD Storefront

Graded on a Curve,
Drive-By Truckers, American Band

Celebrating Patterson Hood, born on this day in 1964.Ed.

Hot damn, I loves me some Drive-By Truckers. Anybody who’s ever seen ‘em knows they put on a kick-ass live show, and anybody who’s ever heard 2001’s Southern Rock Opera knows that it’s one of the most ambitious and brilliant concept albums ever recorded, period. And it includes one of the best love songs ever written to rock’n’roll, “Let There Be Rock,” which covers all the bases from Molly Hatchet to Bon Scott to Lynyrd Skynyrd and “The Boys Are Back in Town,” to say nothing of freaking out on acid at a Blue Oyster Cult concert, an event that I include on my own rock’n’roll resume.

Since then they’ve continued to release strong album after strong album, and this despite personnel changes including the defections of both the multi-talented Jason Isbell and Shonna Tucker, she of the amazing voice. And have I mentioned they have impeccable taste in covers? Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Kiss, Tom T. Hall—why, they even cover Warren Zevon’s fiery “Play It All Night Long” and beat him, no sweat piss jizz or blood about it, at his own game.

Drive-By Truckers have always written smart songs, and many of them have been protest songs, on everything from the ruthless machinations of rapacious corporations to the murders of those four little black girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing by the KKK in 1963 to the still very much alive specter of hate-monger George Wallace, but on their newly released LP American Band they go all out, tackling such hot button issues as police shootings of young black men, school massacres, and gun control in general.

Hardly what one would expect from a bunch of southern boys who sound very much like southern boys, but then again it was Lynyrd Skynyrd, those paragons of the Confederate flag-waving southland (and the chief characters in the cast of Southern Rock Opera) who had the chutzpah to condemn Saturday night specials. And who sang “Boo! Boo!” in reference to segretionist Alabama governor George Wallace while they were at it.

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Andy McCluskey
of OMD, The TVD Interview

In a rare and intimate conversation, I had the privilege of sitting down with Andy McCluskey, the visionary frontman of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), ahead of their highly anticipated performance at the Cruel World Festival.

With a career spanning over four decades, McCluskey opened up about his enduring partnership with co-founder Paul Humphreys, the highs, lows, and unbreakable bond that has defined OMD’s legacy, their pioneering synth-pop roots, and the timeless allure of vinyl and how it continues to shape their artistry.

The fourth annual Cruel World Festival has an incredible lineup of iconic artists. How does it feel to be part of such an event, and what does it mean for OMD to perform alongside other legends from that incredible era?

We are really, really excited and happy to be doing this. We’ve talked to Cruel World on a couple of occasions and we’ve never managed to actually get the thing sorted out. We’re thrilled to be on the bill with such an incredible and diverse lineup.

Are there any bands on the bill you’re excited to play alongside?

We’re excited obviously to be on the same bill as our old friends New Order because we remember them as Joy Division back in 1979 when we were on Factory. I can remember seeing Devo when they played their first ever concert at Eric’s Club in Liverpool, they were amazing and I have not seem them live since. Fun fact—their first album, Q. Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, is still one of my most played records. And the list just goes on and on and on. From our era, you’ve got Madness and you’ve got Blancmange and you’ve got Midge Ure and The Go Go’s. Unbelievable.

When preparing for a festival like Cruel World, how do you approach crafting a setlist that satisfies both lifelong fans and newer listeners who might be seeing you for the very first time?

It can be difficult, because we normally play our headlining sets for over an hour and a half. During those shows, we take the audience on a journey through our classics as well as some deep dives into our catalog—things that the hardcore fans are going to want to hear. But as you know, if you’re lucky enough to have had a handful of hits, you really need to play them. Because, when I go and see bands I like, I want to hear their hits. A few deep cuts are fine, but I am truly there to hear the hits.

So, we’ll be playing pretty much that type of set that people will know. I think when you go to a festival like Cruel World, you just get out there and basically hit people between the eyes with your best shots. And if they want to hear OMD’s deeper cuts, they’ll come and see us at one of our headlining gigs when we’ve got more time to explore that history.

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Graded on a Curve:
Neu!,
Neu! ‘75

Remembering Klaus Dinger, born on this day in 1946.Ed.

I’ve always loved Neu!; theirs is the relentless and steady as she goes “motorik” sound of a BMW stolen by the outlaw Baader-Meinhof Gang speeding down the Autobahn, on their way to West Berlin to create mischief and mayhem.

Formed in 1971 in Düsseldorf by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother, both of whom were former members of Kraftwerk, Neu! was one of the founders of Krautrock, utilizing the simplistic 4/4 motorik (i.e., “motor skill”) beat (which Dinger chose to label the “Apache beat”) to propel their songs while dispensing with all kinds of useless stuff like verses and choruses and the like. Meanwhile Rother accompanied Dinger’s drumming with a guitar-produced harmonic drone, utilizing a single chord upon which he would pile overdub upon overdub to emphasize timbral change.

Not that I know what any of that means, but I don’t have to, because I’m no musician but just a guy with ears, two of them to be exact, one of which works better than the other due to a tragic Q-tip accident. The important thing is that Neu! influenced everyone from David Bowie to John Lydon, to say nothing of Stereolab (natch) and even Oasis. The results of Neu!’s innovations were simultaneously lulling and exciting; theirs was the sound of minimal variation at high velocity.

Neu! ’75 followed 1972’s Neu! and 1973’s Neu! 2, and was significantly different from those records in so far as Dinger and Rother had begun to take divergent paths. In the end they compromised, with side one highlighting Rother’s ambient leanings and side two spotlighting Dinger’s more feral rock, which could almost be called proto-punk. The resulting LP is a Jekyll and Hyde proposition, but it works, in exactly the same way as David Bowie’s Neu!-influenced Low LP does.

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TVD Radar: Carlos Santana: Love, Devotion, Surrender: The Illustrated Story of His Music Journey by Jeff Tamarkin in stores 5/27

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Take a visual journey through Carlos Santana’s legendary career with Carlos Santana: Love, Devotion, Surrender (Insight Editions; May 27, 2025), featuring never-before-seen and rare photography and ephemera from Santana’s archive, documenting more than fifty years of his one-of-a-kind artistry, and his impact on the world of music.

Carlos Santana, named one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists and one of the 100 Greatest Artists by Rolling Stone, has been an influential musician since his start in 1965. With numerous awards, including nearly a dozen Grammy Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, and his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, Santana has cemented his name in rock and roll history. Now, fans can follow Santana through his musical journey with this oversized, slip-cased, deluxe retrospective book, featuring never-before-seen pieces from his personal archives such as rare backstage and onstage photography, tour memorabilia, personal art and correspondence, awards, and more.

In addition to the pieces from Santana’s personal archives, this extraordinary volume also features a foldout of his favorite guitars from his vast collection, facsimiles of his most important albums, an in-depth illustrated discography, and a complete catalogue of every Santana performance from 1968 to 2025. Jeff Tamarkin’s illuminating text is accompanied by brand-new interviews with key figures from Santana’s life, including producer Clive Davis, original band members Gregg Rollie, Michael Shrieve, and Michael Carabello, collaborators such as Rob Thomas, Narada Michael Walden, and John McLaughlin, as well as wife and current Santana drummer Cindy Blackman Santana.

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Graded on a Curve:
Jon Hassell, Dream Theory in Malaya: Fourth World Volume Two

Remembering Jon Hassell in advance of his birthdate tomorrow.
Ed.

Originally released in 1981 on Editions EG, Jon Hassell’s Dream Theory in Malaya: Fourth World Volume Two was a groundbreaker in its merger of ambient, experimental, and global sounds, but as the decades unfurled it came to be inexplicably overlooked, in part due to a lack of reissues since getting placed on compact disc in the late-’80s. Well, that scenario has changed, as it’s been given a LP and CD release courtesy of Glitterbeat Records’ new sub-label Tak:Til; that its often surreal yet meticulously crafted rewards are back in the bins is a fine circumstance indeed.

Regarding Jon Hassell’s early catalog, 1980’s Fourth World Vol. 1: Possible Musics is much better known, even before it was reissued by Glitterbeat in 2014, largely because it has Brain Eno’s name on the cover. Eno plays on and mixed Vol. Two as well, but co-billing eludes him, specifically due to Hassell’s distress over his partner running with the Fourth World musical ball and spiking it directly into David Byrne’s backyard.

Hassell apparently viewed Talking Heads’ Remain in Light (’80) and the Eno/ Byrne collab My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (’81) as part of “a full-scale appropriation.” This may sound like an atmosphere of hostility, but Hassell actually contributed to Remain in Light, and as said, ol’ Bri wasn’t locked out the studio for Vol. 2; in retrospect, Hassell has said he “probably under-credited him.”

If a bit harsh at the time, Hassell’s caution over the usurping-weakening of the Fourth World, a concept expanded upon by Hassell as “a viewpoint out of which evolves guidelines for finding balances between accumulated knowledge and the conditions created by new technologies,” wasn’t exactly unjustified, as a stated goal was to imagine a musical landscape where assorted global musics, with Hassell citing Javanese, Pygmy, and Aboriginal forms as examples, had been as influential as the Euro-classical tradition.

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TVD Radar: The Podcast with Dylan Hundley, Episode 175: Hellbender Vinyl

When two artists, a label manager, and a PhD in chemical engineering (who is also one of the artists) start a vinyl pressing plant in Pittsburgh and call it Hellbender, it’s pretty cool.

On this episode of Radar I sat down with Pittsburgh native Jeff Betten (Misra Records) and musician/ entrepreneur Matt Dowling (SWOLL, bassist of Burial Waves) who recently opened up a new vinyl plant in Pittsburgh, PA. They both have interesting backgrounds in music, business, and science which are uncommon combinations. They are keeping things artist-friendly at Hellbender by pressing smaller quantities of records and engaging the community by hosting events such as live shows, listening parties, film screenings, and more at the plant.

For more information go to hellbendervinyl.com where you find out more about pressing with them and upcoming events.

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.

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Graded on a Curve:
The Bonzo Dog Band, Tadpoles

Remembering Vivian Stanshall, born on this date in 1943.Ed.

I am tempted to call The Bonzo Dog Band (or the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, take your pick) the greatest group in the history of rock. And this despite the fact that they only occasionally got around to playing what could be called a rock song. They were too far too busy cracking themselves up with their hilarious, brilliantly surreal, and utterly deranged wit. If Monty Python had turned to music full-time, they might—although I honestly doubt it—have been as funny as The Bonzo Dog Band.

The genre-hopping mobile insane asylum that was The Bonzo Dog Band might throw anything at you: trad jazz, oldies covers, bizarre street interviews with perplexed normals, and parodies, heaps of parodies—of thirties songs, music hall songs, fifties songs, blues songs, hard-rock songs, psychedelic songs—you name it. And they were excellent musicians—when they wanted to be—with a genius for arranging songs. Your average Bonzo tune may sound anarchic, but you can be certain it was put together with an exacting eye for detail, and every detail is in its right place.

There’s really no one to compare The Bonzo Dog Band with except Frank Zappa, and the comparison is a poor one. Zappa’s humor was sneering and juvenile; his Brit counterparts favored an intelligent and good-natured Dadaism. Just check out “The Intro and the Outro,” a parody of a band introduction that grows stranger and stranger as it goes on, with the announcer snazzily saying, “And looking very relaxed on vibes, Adolf Hitler… niiiice” and “Representing the flower people, Quasimodo, on bells.” No yellow snow here.

Formed in London in 1962 as a trad jazz band, The Bonzo Dog Band’s core line-up included the mad and brilliant Vivian “Ginger Geezer” Stanshall on trumpet and lead vocals; the equally demented Neil Innes on piano, guitar, and lead vocals; Rodney “Rhino” Desborough Slater on saxophone; Roger Ruskin Spear on tenor saxophone and assorted mad sound-producing contraptions, including the trouser press and “Theremin leg”; Dennis Cowan on drums and vocals; and the legendary “Legs” Larry Smith—the tap dancer extraordinaire who played one of rock’s few tap solos on Elton John’s “I Think I’m Going to Kill Myself”—on drums.

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TVD Radar: Meiko Kaji, Yadokari reissue + 7-inch in stores 5/2

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Wewantsounds continues its extensive Meiko Kaji reissue program—in partnership with Teichiku Records and Kaji herself—with the release of Yadokari, her third album from 1973. This marks the first time the album has been reissued on vinyl, featuring its original artwork and newly remastered audio.

Renowned for her iconic 1970s films (Lady Snowblood, the Stray Cat Rock series) and admired by Quentin Tarantino, Meiko Kaji also released a string of outstanding albums on Teichiku, blending Japanese pop with cinematic grooves. Yadokari, is reissued here with its original deluxe gatefold sleeve and OBI plus a two-page insert featuring new liner notes by Hashim Kotaro Bharoocha. As a special bonus, this edition includes a 7″ EP single featuring “Shura No Hana,” famously featured on the Kill Bill soundtrack.

Japanese actress Meiko Kaji, born in Tokyo, has become a worldwide cult icon, partly thanks to Quentin Tarantino, who heavily based his Kill Bill films on the 1973 revenge classic Lady Snowblood, one of Kaji’s most famous roles. Renowned for her performances in the acclaimed Stray Cat Rock and Female Prisoner Scorpion film series, Kaji was one of Japan’s most iconic exploitation film actresses of the early 1970s.

Beyond acting, she was invited by film studios to perform theme songs for many of her films leading to revered music career. Between 1972 and 1974, she recorded five albums for Teichiku, which have since become highly sought after.

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Graded on a Curve:
Jerry Reed,
Jerry Reed Visits
Hit Row

Remembering Jerry Reed, born on this day in 1937.Ed.

A guitar picker extraordinaire and redneck comedian whose songs could almost be called funky, the late Jerry “Alabama Wild Man” Reed is one of my favorite country artists. Me, I’d love him if he’d never cut anything but “East Bound and Down” (the theme song of Smokey and the Bandit!), “Amos Moses,” and “The Preacher and the Bear,” a hilarious tale of an unfortunate meeting in the woods between a preacher hunting on the Sabbath and a grizzly bear that ends with the preacher up a tree and praying to his Lord, “I mean/Look at how he’s lookin’ at me/Does the word ‘fast food’ mean anything to you, Lord?/Oh, he’s hairy/And he’s still thinkin’/And he’s lookin’ at me like I… smell good!”

The man’s usual mode was high-spirited, and he had a knack for what you could call novelty tunes, but he was also capable of singing about the more lugubrious aspects of life; you know, broken hearts and all that. But I much preferred him at his wildest and woolliest, as did Robert Christgau, who called him “a great crazy,” and said apropos his more saccharine tunes, “He couldn’t sell soap to a hippie’s mother” and “RCA should ban the ballad.” Me, I hadn’t listened to him for years when my girlfriend gave me a truly terrible ‘70s compilation CD redeemed only by R. Dean Taylor’s great “Indiana Wants Me” and Reed’s fantastic swamp tall tale, “Amos Moses,” which is one of the songs on the 2000 best-of compilation, Jerry Reed Visits Hit Row.

Fiddle-driven opener “East Bound and Down” is a bootlegger’s anthem and smooth as Jim Beam Single Barrel bourbon, and includes a great solo by Reed. It speeds along like an 18-wheeler on the run from Smokey, and if you think it’s a bit slick, well, all I can say is all those thirsty boys in Atlanta don’t agree. “Amos Moses” is a funky tune about a Cajun alligator poacher, mean as a snake on account of his old man, who used the young Moses as alligator bait. He’s got one arm on account of a hungry gator, most likely killed a sheriff trying to track him down in the bayou, and the only thing cooler than his biography are Reed’s righteous guitar picking and distinctive voice, which are as good old boy as you can get.

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TVD Radar: Heartbreaker: A Memoir by Mike Campbell in stores now

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Celebrated guitarist and songwriter Mike Campbell’s (Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Fleetwood Mac) highly anticipated new memoir Heartbreaker, written with Ari Surdoval, is out now via Grand Central Publishing. The book is already the subject of extensive critical acclaim from Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, Publishers Weekly, Guitar Player and many more; order Heartbreaker HERE.

In celebration of the book’s release, Campbell is appearing at a number of events including the powerHouse Arena in Brooklyn on March 20 and The Strand in New York on March 21. Additional events will be announced shortly. Campbell is also on tour with his band The Dirty Knobs this summer, playing a pair of dates with Chris Stapleton before heading out on a co-headlining tour with Blackberry Smoke and opener Shannon McNally.

Mike Campbell was the lead guitarist for Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers from the band’s inception in 1976 until Petty’s tragic death in 2017. Campbell’s iconic, melodic playing helped form the foundation of the band’s sound, as heard on definitive classics like “American Girl,” “Breakdown,” “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” “Learning to Fly” and “Into the Great Wide Open.” Together, Petty and Campbell wrote countless songs, including some of the band’s biggest hits: “Refugee,” “Here Comes My Girl,” “You Got Lucky” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream” among them.

From their early days in Florida to their dizzying rise to superstardom to Petty’s acclaimed solo albums Full Moon Fever and Wildflowers, Petty never made a record without Campbell. Their work together is timeless, as are the career-defining hits Campbell co-wrote with Don Henley (“The Boys of Summer”) and with Petty for Stevie Nicks (“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”).

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Graded on a Curve:
Lee Scratch Perry,
Rainford

Remembering Lee Scratch Perry, born on this date in 1936.Ed.

Of records, legendary Jamaican producer Lee “Scratch” Perry has released a ton; setting aside the singles and EPs, his non-compilation album total is hovering near 100, and for an artist outside the jazz realm, that’s a considerable achievement. Of course, the number of individuals who own a copy of every one of those full-lengths might fit comfortably into a four-door sedan, a possibility illuminating that Perry’s prolificacy doesn’t equate to his prime. 

When you make as many records as Lee Perry has, they can’t all be brilliant. Hell, the majority of them are unlikely to resonate with more than moderate levels of personal investment. I say unlikely because I’ll confess that haven’t listened to more than half of his output; Discogs lists 87 full-length albums and 97 comps, and I’ve a sneaking suspicion there are scads of releases that haven’t been logged, plus beaucoup stray singles and EPs (to say nothing of the dodgy gray-market stuff).

Succinctly, after hearing a fair portion of Perry’s later material I realized I should cease investigating those more recent progressions and just hang with the canonical stuff. If all this seems poised to besmirch the guy’s rep as a dub innovator-auteur, I will counter that fluctuating personal investment isn’t the same as lacking a recognizable stamp; if the majority of his post-’70s work is far from essential, I’ve never heard anything that faltered into anonymous hackery.

Lee Perry very much fits in with certain cineastes from the early days of auteurism. Specifically, like numerous directors who worked under studio contracts and would begin another film almost immediately after their last one was finished, Perry has created, if not incessantly, then at a clip that has insured a diminishment in his masterpiece percentage, a downward plummet to what some folks might consider journeyman levels had the man’s achievements not been integral to the growth and longevity of Jamaican music.

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TVD Radar: Chris Rea, Shamrock Diaries 40th anniversary recycled green vinyl in stores 5/16

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Legendary singer-songwriter Chris Rea is marking the 40th anniversary of his acclaimed album Shamrock Diaries with a special reissue on 1LP green recycled vinyl set for release on 16th May 2025. Released in 1985, the album remains a fan favourite and a testament to Chris’ enduring musical legacy.

Shamrock Diaries was a deeply personal and introspective work, drawing inspiration from Chris’ Irish heritage and his own life experiences. The album’s raw honesty and emotional depth resonated with listeners, solidifying Rea’s reputation as a master storyteller.

Chris Rea’s time in Ireland inspired the material for Shamrock Diaries. In a recent interview included in the 2019 deluxe version, Rea noted the similarities between Dublin and his hometown of Middlesbrough, which had a significant Irish population. Further, Chris has familial connections to Ireland. Two of the album’s most popular songs, “Stainsby Girls” and “Josephine,” were written for his wife Joan and daughter Josephine, respectively.

After his mother passed away, Chris returned to his hometown of Middlesbrough. He told Q magazine that upon his return, he found his childhood home had been demolished. The experience of finding his childhood home missing, after three years of extensive touring in Europe, was so disorienting that it felt like a scene out of a science fiction movie, and inspired him to write “Steel River.”

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TVD Radar: Hozier, Hozier 10th anniversary 2LP reissues in stores 5/16

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Following a spectacular 2024 that saw him reach the top of Billboard Hot 100 with his single “Too Sweet,” 2025 sees world-renowned singer-songwriter Hozier celebrate 10 years of his 4x Platinum certified self-titled debut album with a very special vinyl repack. The release will come May 16th on Legacy/Columbia Records.

Featuring his landmark breakthrough mega hit “Take Me To Church,” which is RIAA certified Diamond in the US, the critically-acclaimed record also includes fan favourites “Work Song,” “From Eden,” and “Someone New.” One of the most impactful debut albums of the last 10 years, the record put Hozier on the map as one of the most exciting artists in the world and saw him pick up a GRAMMY nomination for Song of the Year for “Take Me To Church.”

The anniversary reissue will arrive on a selection of vinyl variants including x2 LP custard vinyl, a limited edition x2 LP baby blue vinyl—only available from Hozier’s store, a US Amazon exclusive x2 LP on olive green, and a very special x2 LP evergreen vinyl exclusively available in Ireland. As well as presenting the album in its glorious original form, the release will feature bonus tracks “In The Woods Somewhere,” “Run,” “Arsonist’s Lullabye,” and “My Love Will Never Die” on vinyl for the very first time. The standard album will also be reissued on cassette.

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Paperback Writer:
A Beatles Book
Roundup

Along with Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair with their multi-volume Paul McCartney biography books, Luca Perasi is becoming one of the foremost chroniclers of the life and music of Paul McCartney. While Perasi has written some books in Italian, he has also written several books in English. There was Paul McCartney: Recording Sessions 1969-2013 and Paul McCartney Music Is Ideas: The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989.

In 2024 he came out with two more books: Paul McCartney Music Is Ideas The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 2) 1990–2012 and Paul McCartney & Wings: Band On The Run (The Story of a Classic Album), all from L.I.L.Y. Publishing. It was only a matter of time before someone wrote an entire book on the Band on The Run album. It is easily McCartney’s best album and one of the best releases of the ’70s.

Perasi covers the album from every imaginable angle and seeks to set the record straight on some of the contradictory stories about the conception and recording of the album. It’s also a beautiful book filled with rare photos in black and white and color, along with other research information. Perasi gives a detailed account of what Wings were up to before the making of the album right through to the post-release legacy of the album. These short books give a fulsome account of the making of an album not found in career-spanning biographies and this album, with its major importance and page-turning story, was made for this format.

For Paul McCartney Music Is Ideas The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 2) 1990-2012, Perasi primarily follows the format that he used for volume one. Every album and single from this volume, Tripping the Live Fantastic! through the Kisses on the Bottom releases are covered here. Each entry features the song listing for an album, recording information, a detailed essay, and sources cited throughout the pages, rather than in a footnote compendium at the end of the book. Each song includes a short essay, a shorter recording information box, and a box on the musicians who contributed to the given track. This is a beautiful, over-sized, hardcover book.

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Graded on a Curve:
The Zombies,
The Complete Studio Recordings

Remembering Paul Atkinson, born on this day in 1946.Ed.

With three enduring hit singles, the last of which derives from a classic album that’s as redolent of its era as any, The Zombies aren’t accurately classified as underrated, but it’s also right to say that the potential of much of their catalog went unfulfilled while they were extant. Since their breakup, subsequent generations have dug into that body of work, which has aged rather well, and right now nearly all of it can be found in Varèse Sarabande’s The Complete Studio Recordings, a 5LP collection released in celebration of the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For anyone cultivating a shelf of ’60s pop-rock vinyl, this collection is a smart acquisition.

The Zombies began cohering as a band around 1961-’62 in St Albans, Hertfordshire UK. By the time they debuted on record in ’64 the lineup had solidified, featuring lead vocalist-guitarist Colin Blunstone, keyboardist Rod Argent, guitarist Paul Atkinson, bassist Chris White, and drummer Hugh Grundy. That’s how it would remain until their breakup in December of ’67. Rightly considered part of the mid-’60s British Invasion, The Zombies’ stature in the context of this explosion basically rests on the success of two singles, both far more popular in the US than in the band’s home country.

Those hits, “She’s Not There” and “Tell Her No,” each made the Billboard Top 10 (the former all the way to No. 2) and respectively open sides one and two of the US version of their first album, a move suggesting confidence on the part of their label Parrot that, as the needle worked its way inward, listeners wouldn’t become dismayed or bored by a drop-off in quality.

That assurance was well-founded. While “She’s Not There” is an utter pop gem, thriving on perfectly-judged instrumental construction (in its original, superior mono version with Grundy’s added drum input) and emotional breadth that’s found it long-eclipsing mere oldies nostalgia, and “Tell Her No” a more relaxed yet crisp follow-up, their talents were established beyond those two songs, even if nothing else on The Zombies quite rises to the same heights of quality.

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  • SUPPORTING YOUR LOCAL INDIE SHOPS SINCE 2007


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