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Fantastic stuff! Smiley Smile is the issued version of Smile, a classic – and even though some may gripe that it's missing the 50% extra material that was supposed to be on the Smile set, it's still utterly fantastic! Titles include "Vegetables", "Heroes & Villains", "Fall", "Little Pad", "With Me Tonight", and "Wind Chimes". Wild Honey is a great lost album, too – one that has the Beach Boys going back to more stripped-down sounds, but still staying kind of odd and eerie, on tracks like "Let The Wind Blow", "I'd Love Just Once To See You", "Country Air", "Aren't You Glad", and "Here Comes The Night". CD also features 6 bonus tracks, including alternate takes from the Smile sessions! CD

Wild sounds from the early years of rock and roll – a heady brew of guitar-heavy instrumentals, soulful stompers, and more – all pulled from the hinterland of the rare 45 underground! The tunes here go way past familiar oldies – and even past the sorts of sounds that usually show up on surf compilations – because, as he does with funk records, Keb Darge has a great ear for the unusual – the sorts of odd platters that have always show up in his best record digging and DJ gigs – laid out perfectly here in a really overstuffed collection! Keb turns in nice notes on each track – and titles include "Honey Bun" by Larry Donn, "Ghost Train" by The Swanks, "I Don't Wanna Leave" by Deacon & The Rock & Rollers, "Gorilla" by The Shandells, "She's The One That Got It" by Allen Page, "Madness" by Rhythm Rockers, "Woodpecker Rock" by The Braves, "Let's Dance" by The Excels, "Bad Bad Boy" by Bobby Lollar, and "Lobo Jones" by Jackie Gotroe. (Funky Compilations, Rock) CD

Titles include "Wild Night", "Like A Cannonball", "Old Old Woodstock", "Tupelo Honey", "When That Evening Sun Goes Down", and "Moonshine Whiskey". CD

Titles include "Wild Night", "Like A Cannonball", "Old Old Woodstock", "Tupelo Honey", "When That Evening Sun Goes Down", and "Moonshine Whiskey". LP, Vinyl record album

Beach Boys karaoke – or kind of a "music minus one" album – but whatever the case, the set's a pretty unique outing in the field of 60s pop! The record's exactly what the title promises – a "stack o tracks" from the group's earlier records – rhythm parts, some instrumental bits – all laid out with key guitar parts missing and no vocals at all – so that you can pick up your instrument and play along with the record – and maybe get your friends to harmonize too! At the time, the approach seemed somewhat crazy – but after spending decades tracking down Smile-era bootlegs of Brian Wilson studio tracks just like this, the record's got a surprising sort of brilliance – almost as if Brian had guessed there's be a market for his "studio progress" sort of material. Titles include "Darlin", "Salt Lake City", "Wild Honey", "Catch A Wave", "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "Surfer Girl", "God Only Knows", "Little Honda", and "Let Him Run Wild". LP, Vinyl record album

A Sunshine Pop relic – and a beautiful one at that! The Holy Mackerel were an early group project of Paul Williams – recorded here in a hip late 60s Warner mode that's very similar to that of Paul's excellent Someday Man album – with nicely compressed instrumentation that matches Paul's wonderful vocal style, and some nice trippy and folksy touches that really push the "sunshine" in the sound. The tunes are great – a bit more biting than Williams' later work – and titles include "The Wild Side Of Life", "Bitter Honey", "The Secret Of Pleasure", "Scorpio Red", "The Lady Is Waiting", "The Somewhere In Arizona At 4:30am Restaurant Song", and "Prinderella". LP, Vinyl record album

A masterpiece from the legendary SF rocker Steve Miller – and a perfect summation of the years of blues, soul, funk, and rock he'd been soaking up in the Bay Area scene – served up here with an edge that's still very firmly in place! Miller was already plenty great before this set, but somehow the record really pushes Steve into perfection territory he'd never hit before – able to cross over big with a few key tracks, but still have this sharpness in his guitar work and sense of charm that never seem to die! The album crossed over instantly with the massive cut "Fly Like An Eagle" – already great on its own, but supported here with the massive "Space Intro", which adds an extra minute of cool electronics to the tune – and other great cuts include the amazing funky rocker "Take The Money & Run", which has a break that never gets old – plus the hit "Rock N Me", and the cuts "The Window", "Wild Mountain Honey", "Sweet Maree", "Blue Odyssey", "Mercury Blues", and "Dance Dance Dance". LP, Vinyl record album

A sprawling 5CD box set of benchmark 80s indie pop from the UK – chronologically sequenced (for the most part) from the beginning to the end of the decade – with so many brilliant songs both straight-up classic and others that are relatively forgotten! Incredible stuff from the post punk guitar years, to dreamier and more psych steeped sounds, to the dancier grooves late in the decade that laid the groundwork for the 90s. Classics and early singles by Prefab Sprout, TV Personalities, Everything But The Girl, Pulp, Biff Bang Pow!, Primal Scream, The Wedding Present, The Soup Dragons, House Of Love, The Shamen, The Rosehips, Pop Will Eat Itself, The Wonder Stuff, The Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, James, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Lloyd Cole & The Commotion, The Darling Buds, The Boo Radleys and many, many more! More than 130 tracks in all – with a thick booklet of notes! Kind of like a Nuggets for the indie 80s British scenes! SO many great songs, but to name a few: "Revolutionary Spirit" by Wild Swans, "The Missionary" by Josef K, "Lions In The Garden" by Prefab Sprout, "A Picture Of Dorian Gray (Live)" by TV Personalities, "Just Like Honey (demo October '84)" by Jesus & Mary Chain, "Oblivious" by Aztec Camera, "Velocity Girl" by Primal Scream, "Go Out And Get 'Em, Boy" by The Wedding Present, "If I Said" by The Darling Buds, "Son Of A Gun (demo)" by The LAs, "The Hardest Thing In The World" by Stone Roses, "Catweazle" by The Boo Radleys and many, many more! CD

A sprawling 5CD box set of benchmark 80s indie pop from the UK – chronologically sequenced (for the most part) from the beginning to the end of the decade – with so many brilliant songs both straight-up classic and others that are relatively forgotten! Incredible stuff from the post punk guitar years, to dreamier and more psych steeped sounds, to the dancier grooves late in the decade that laid the groundwork for the 90s. Classics and early singles by Prefab Sprout, TV Personalities, Everything But The Girl, Pulp, Biff Bang Pow!, Primal Scream, The Wedding Present, The Soup Dragons, House Of Love, The Shamen, The Rosehips, Pop Will Eat Itself, The Wonder Stuff, The Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, James, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Lloyd Cole & The Commotion, The Darling Buds, The Boo Radleys and many, many more! More than 130 tracks in all – with a thick booklet of notes! Kind of like a Nuggets for the indie 80s British scenes! SO many great songs, but to name a few: "Revolutionary Spirit" by Wild Swans, "The Missionary" by Josef K, "Lions In The Garden" by Prefab Sprout, "A Picture Of Dorian Gray (Live)" by TV Personalities, "Just Like Honey (demo October '84)" by Jesus & Mary Chain, "Oblivious" by Aztec Camera, "Velocity Girl" by Primal Scream, "Go Out And Get 'Em, Boy" by The Wedding Present, "If I Said" by The Darling Buds, "Son Of A Gun (demo)" by The LAs, "The Hardest Thing In The World" by Stone Roses, "Catweazle" by The Boo Radleys and many, many more! CD