Third Man Records interview with Ben Blackwell

Third Man Records was launched by Jack White in Detroit, MI in 2001, and in 2009 opened its current Nashville, TN location, which houses a record store, novelties lounge (featuring the Third Man Record Booth), label offices and distribution center, photo studio, and the world’s only live venue with direct-to-acetate recording capabilities. Third Man is an innovator in the world of vinyl records and a boundary pusher in the world of recorded music, aiming to bring tangibility and spontaneity back into the record business and issue releases that leave no doubt in the minds of listeners that music is indeed sacred.

Buddy Guy - “The Blues Is Alive and Well” (2018) review

Buddy Guy - The Blues Is Alive and Well (2018)

On The Blues Is Alive And Well Buddy Guy delivers a rather extensive collection of material, one containing fifteen tracks and clocking in at nearly sixty-five minutes of groove laden music.

Gene Clark - “Sings for You” (2018) review

Gene Clark - Sings for You (Omnivore Recordings, 2018)

To say that Gene Clark is an enigma would be an understatement, a powerful but hidden member of The Byrds, and after the Byrds crashed and burned, Clark’s solo career was sporadic at best.

Luna - “Lunafied” (2018) review

Luna - Lunafied (Run Out Groove Records, 2018)

First Time On Vinyl & First Public Release of Lunafied ...

Originally released as a download only, along with but a half dozen watermarked compact disc hard copies in 2006 from Rhino Music, the album Lunafied has finally seen the light of day, pressed to a double disc gatefold on 180g coloured vinyl.

HEKLA - “Boulevards” premiere

HEKLA - Gloomy psychedelic Doom Pop from Berlin

Led by the two dreamy vocals of the Swedish cousins Elsa and Teresa, the quartet from Berlin spans the arc from psychedelic rock with distorted guitars and flat organ riffs to melancholic avant-garde folk with intricate piano passages and hypnotic rhythms.

The Index interview

Index was a psych rock group from the Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Their debut The Black Album was released in December of 1967. This extremely rare album was limited to around 150 copies. Later they released The Red Album, which is also very rare. Their unique sound is what makes them so special. They gained a cult status among psych-garage collectors. Here’s an interview with guitarist John B. Ford and drummer Jim Valice.

Interview with Nate Hall of U.S. Christmas

Nate Hall, a mastermind behind U.S. Christmas - dark space rock collective from North Carolina. Nate has also a wonderful solo acoustic discography. 

Dave Bixby - “Ode To Quetzalcoatl” (1969) review

Dave Bixby - Ode To Quetzalcoatl (Self-released, 1969/ Reissue on Guerssen, 2018)

Originally championed in The Acid Archives, our late friend Patrick Lundborg’s essential bible of privately pressed, underground sounds of weird, Christian, avant garde, garage rock insanity (“one of the ultimate incarnations of tormented religious loner-downer folk”), Ode To Quetzalcoatl could be the result of some weird acid flashback or conversations with the risen Christ – you decide. Bixby’s just paying tribute to the spirituality that he experienced that helped him disavow drugs and produce the beautiful, peaceful music contained inside his debut album, originally recorded in a friend’s living room across three nights and self-released in 1969. Originally part of the mid-‘60s Grand Rapids (Michigan) garage and folk scene (Shillelaghs, Peter & The Prophets), Bixby struggled with LSD and other drugs du jour, before seeking a way out and finding solace in conversations with Christ-like entities. This album is his epiphany, a way, according to the excellent liner notes “to transform the instant and ineffable communications he received into something personal he could explore”.

The Laissez Fairs - “Empire Of Mars” (2018) review

The Laissez Fairs “Empire Of Mars” (RUM BAR Records, 2018)

https://rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com/album/empire-of-mars

The third album by Las Vegas psychedelic mod rockers The Laissez Fairs is truly a band effort, with vocalist/guitarist/bassist/drummer John Fallon and vocalist/12-string guitarist/keyboardist Joe Lawless contributing five tracks each to “Empire Of Mars.” Appearing on RUM BAR Records this CD release was, like its predecessor, recorded at Lawless Noise And Visions in Las Vegas, but this time produced by the band themselves.

From The Vault: Ancient Grease - “Women and Children First” (1970)

Hailing from South Wales, Ancient Grease made its way in the club circuit, making a good reputation for themselves playing covers under the name “Dust” in the late ‘60s. Shortly after having signed a deal with Mercury, they released this album, which received virtually no promotion from the label, leading the band breaking up. So, as they say, a typical early ‘70s one and done band. 

Humble Pie - “Official Bootleg Box Set 2” (2018) review

Humble Pie - Official Bootleg Box Set 2 (HNE Recordings, 2018)

Following up on 2017’s “Official Bootleg Box Set 1” drummer Jerry Shirley has compiled a five CD box set of live recordings by Humble Pie, featuring performances from 1971 through 1981. The collection begins with one of the first gigs to feature guitarist Clem Clempson and ends with a soundboard tap of the band recorded just a couple of months before the band broke up for the second time in July, 1981.