December 21st, 2024
Analogue Productions Serves a "Smokin'" Piece of Humble Pie! A long out-of-print audiophile reissue gets repressedBy: Dylan Peggin
Whether the members of Cream were considered “cream of the crop” players or ELP debuting before a crowd of 600,000 at the Isle of Wight, supergroups became a hot-button commodity that granted success in the late 1960s. Although Humble Pie may have included members of Small Faces, The Herd, Spooky Tooth, and the Apostolic Intervention, they were keen to distance themselves from any preconceived connotations by the music press. The foursome established a sound rooted in... Read More
November 8th, 2024
“Queen I” Gets A Facelift Digitally retouched drums and pitch-corrected vocals?!By: Dylan Peggin
“I have seen the future in pop music, and it is a band called Queen” - Jac Holzman, Elektra RecordsThe beginnings of Queen came from the remnants of guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor’s former group, Smile. The two bounded together and recruited vocalist Freddie Mercury, who pushed to rechristen the group Queen, and they added bassist John Deacon. The group gigged around England’s college circuit before cutting a demo at De Lane Lea Studios to test the... Read More
March 2nd, 2024
Ace Frehley Still Electrifies with “10,000 Volts” KISS’ original guitarist releases his best solo album in decadesBy: Dylan Peggin
The pantheon of guitar gods from the 1970s consists of the usual players that come to mind: Jimmy Page, Tony Iommi, and Ritchie Blackmore, just to name a few. Best known for being the original guitarist in KISS and adopting the makeup persona of “The Spaceman,” Ace Frehley is a self-described anomaly. His unorthodox approach to guitar playing left a mark on teenagers who spent their adolescent years learning his solos note-for-note. KISS’ on-stage theatrics enabled... Read More
December 31st, 2023
The Donnas Offered The Best of Both Worlds with “Get Skintight.” Real Gone Music continues to reissue the female rockers’ early catalogBy: Dylan Peggin
The turn of the millennium was a promising time for The Donnas. Churning out an album a year, consecutive tours and placements in film soundtracks established a respectable platform for the Palo Alto female rockers fresh out of high school. The steady productivity, both on and off the road, allowed the girls to evolve. The female Ramones stylings of their self-titled debut and the sleazier glam rock sound of American Teenage Rock ‘n’ Roll Machine are almost total... Read More
October 15th, 2023
VMP ‘Raw Power’ Reissue Makes Case For 1997 Iggy Mix An audiophile edition of The Stooges album “not for audiophiles”By: Malachi Lui
In his liner notes for the new Vinyl Me, Please reissue of Iggy and The Stooges’ 1973 album Raw Power, Andy O’Connor says it’s “not a record for audiophiles.” Then why give this record a sumptuously packaged all-analog reissue?Because despite the somewhat rough recording quality, few records are as historically important as Raw Power. It’s not even the best Stooges record, but it’s inarguably their most influential. Forget proto-punk; Raw Power was the first punk... Read More