Devo's second album didn't scare the bejesus out of 70s rock fans in the way of their agitpop masterpiece debut, and the group's mainstream salad days of "Whip It" were still another year or two away, but nowadays we wouldn't trade Duty Now For The Future for just about any post punk album of the time! At this point the punk-era crunch was still a sizable portion of the plate – for that extra aggro kick behind the squealing synthesizers and primitive electronics. Long underappreciated, and all but ignored in the CD era, Duty. . .has excellent tracks that will always be loved by the Spuds even if WEA kept it buried too long! "Devo Corporate Anthem", "Clockout", "Wiggly World", "Blockhead", "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA", "Red Eye" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

The era that catapulted cult heroes Devo into pop culture history – with bubblier synths, catchier hooks, and crazier multimedia shenanigans than ever before from these pioneers of the video era – and time capsule pop angle aside, it's still one of the best and most innovate albums of its time! It's pretty hard to imagine the early 80s without Devo, but the group and this record is just as amazing decades later, since there was never anyone else like them! Includes "Girl U Want", "It's Not Right", "Whip It", "Freedom Of Coice", "Cold War", "Don't You Know", "Gates Of Steel" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

Much as we love the legendary debut from Joy Division, we love this second album even more – as the whole thing's a perfect realization of their genius – and such a strong step forward, it still pains us to remember that singer Ian Curtis was taken from us all too soon, and the group never got to fully move past this moment! Everything that made the first record great is here – but there's also a more cohesive approach to both the song structure, and the overall album presentation – so that the landscape of darkness we first viewed on Unknown Pleasures comes into even greater focus here – as the songs follow one another in a beautifully logical order, and the slight refinements in production make all the best elements of the musicianship – especially the bass and drums – even more powerful than before. Titles include "Twenty Four Hours", "Heart & Soul", "Decades", "Colony", "Passover", and "A Means To An End". LP, Vinyl record album

Maybe the greatest album ever from Van Morrison – and a set that broke into a whole new side of his talents! Van's producing himself on the record – not really in the conventional role as a producer, but in a way that has him really writing most of the album as he goes along in the studio – using core ideas for tunes, and fleshing them out in a relatively spontaneous way with the musicians involved – at a level that also shows some of the most jazzy elements of Morrison's music to date! That approach is heard to key effect in the sublime title cut "Moondance" – but it also echoes over the course of the whole album's stellar set list – tracks that include "Caravan", "Into The Mystic", "Come Running", "Glad Tidings", and "And It Stoned Me". LP, Vinyl record album

Really great material from Tony Joe White – a never-issued live album recorded during his early 70s stretch at Warner Brothers – done with a raw, stripped-down vibe that offers up an even grittier take on the territory of his early albums for Monument Records! The group is pretty small on the set, and Tony's mostly playing acoustic guitar – and singing in a way that's every bit as earthy and swampy as before, but much more personal too – kind of like we're getting a chance to see a side of his personality that he'd sometimes keep hidden. Titles include "Mississippi River", "Rainy Night In Georgia", "Roosevelt & Ira Lee", "That On The Road Look", "My Kind Of Woman", "Willie & Laura Mae Jones", and a 10 minute take on "Polk Salad Annie". LP, Vinyl record album

One of our favorite moments from the 90s comeback years of Brian Wilson – a really special collaboration with Van Dyke Parks, the unsung LA musical genius who'd helped Wilson make so much great music back in the 60s! The collaboration is great – and both artists really hit a high point they hadn't hit in years – with the kind of special, personal, slightly-fragile songs that Wilson could still do very convincingly at this point in his career – set up by Parks with great instrumentation, and use of harmonized vocals that nicely step in a sideways direction from a more typical Beach Boys approach. Titles include "Orange Crate Art", "My Jeanine", "Movies Is Magic", "This Town Goes Down At Sunset", "Hold Back Time", and "Palm Tree & Moon". 2LP version also includes the unissued songs "Rhapsody In Blue", "Love Is Here To Stay", and "What A Wonderful World". LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

An early 90s Hendrix tribute LP with The Cure, Eric Clapton, The Pretenders, Living Colour, Pat Metheny and more – a compilation that might seemed a little unnecessary at the time, with Jimi's legacy looming as large as ever – but in hindsight it's not only a testament to how far his influence spread to artists of different genres, each song casts works on it's own unique merits. What could've been a simple link from Jimi's heyday to the early 90s alt rock boom is so more diverse than that, with a tracklist that includes ""Purple Haze" by The Cure, "Stone Free" by Eric Clapton, "Red House" by Buddy Guy, ' Hey Joe" by Body Count, "Bold As Love" by The Pretenders, "You Got Me Floatin" by PM Dawn, "Crosstown Traffic" by Living Colour, "Third Stone From The Sun" by Pat Metheny and more. LP, Vinyl record album

Van's debut album for Warner Brothers and a pretty radical departure from anything he'd done before – breaking all kinds of new ground for his own most creative work and helping pave the way for all kinds of hauntingly poetic rock, folk rock, and singer-songwriter records to come! It doesn't take hearing more than a few seconds of the opening title track, with Morrison's rawly passionate voice and spiritually yearning lyrics, to know this is a pretty remarkable creative leap from pop leaning sound of "Brown Eyed Girl" and other preceding efforts! It's almost folk jazz, arrangements wise, with flute and largely acoustic instrumentation, a really spontaneous feel to the sessions, and always hypnotic, seemingly stream of consciousness vocals by Van. As loose and spacious as the sound is, the emotional resonance is pretty heavy, and it's sequenced as a cycle: part one (In The Beginning) on side 1 and part two (Afterwards) on side 2. A stunner! Titles include "Astral Weeks", "Beside You", "Cyprus Avenue", "Sweet Thing", "Slim Slow Slider", and "Madame George". LP, Vinyl record album

The album that really broke the B52s out of the box – the one that took them from being an underground favorite in the clubs and the party scene, to being the kind of group that finally got the exposure they deserved! Of course, some of the help here comes from superproducers Nile Rodgers and Don Was – who really help the group focus on their hooks and crossover groove – all summed up perfectly on the album's hit "Love Shack" – a tune that still gets heavy play around the globe all these many years later. Other tracks include "Roam", "Channel Z", "Cosmic Thing", "Dry Country", "Topaz", "Follow Your Bliss", and "Bushfire". LP, Vinyl record album

Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah, Y- Y- Y- Y- Y- Y- Y-eah, this is one of best art rock albums of all time – the Eno produced full length debut of Devo – the caustic, sarcastic and fun soundtrack to society's devolution! There's nothing we don't love about Devo at this point, from their unprecedented use of multimedia, to the hard to pull off fusion of sneering social and pop culture satire with good humored fun, and that's just the conceptual stuff. The songs are original and inimitably great, too, with those squeeling synth punk dynamics. Tracks include (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (best rock cover ever?) "Jocko Homo", "Mongoloid", "Uncontrollable Urge", "Space Junk", "Come Back Jonee", "Sloppy (I Saw My Baby Gettin')" and more. LP, Vinyl record album

One of the crowning early moments from the young Grateful Dead – a key Warner studio album that really has the group moving from psychedelic to more roots-oriented modes – maybe a Marin vibe versus a Haight sort of happening – with loads of great guitar and pedal from Jerry Garcia, plus lots more from the rest of the crew too. Robert Hunter wrote the tunes, Mickey Hart added in lots of percussion next to the drums - and titles include the very groovy "Truckin", plus "Box Of Rain", "Candyman", "Operator", "Sugar Magnolia", "Friend Of The Devil", "Ripple", "Brokedown Palace", "Attics Of My Life", and "Till The Morning Comes". LP, Vinyl record album

A classic set from the Grateful Dead – and one that features the group mixing studio tracks with their rising fame as a must-see live act! The package features both concert and studio recordings, and there's a wonderfully optimistic, late 60s vibe to the whole thing – the group still looking forward strongly, almost playing with a sense of surprise as they make their way through new musical discoveries – mixing catchiness and complexity together in ways that few of their contemporaries could match. Titles include "That's It For The Other One", "New Potato Caboose", "Born Cross Eyed", "Alligator", and "Caution Do Not Stop On The Tracks". Features the group's 1971 remix of the album! LP, Vinyl record album

The seminal debut of The Grateful Dead – a record that was maybe as important to the American psychedelic scene as the first two albums by Pink Floyd were to the UK! Like those sets, this one almost seems to come out of nowhere – still very much a part of its time, with trippiness and fuzz that other groups were certainly working with – but put together at a level that's very much its own thing, and which is undeniably worthy of all the copycats who paid it tribute in years to come. There's maybe a deeper current of blues roots here than in later years of The Dead – but in the best way possible – and titles include "The Golden Road", "Beat It On Down The Line", "Cold Rain And Snow", "Morning Dew", and "Viola Lee Blues". LP, Vinyl record album

Quite possibly the greatest moment of genius ever from Black Sabbath – and a genre-changing record that influenced generations! The group are at their lean, raw best here – free from any cliches at all, and working in an incredibly heady brew of fuzzy guitar, romping bass, and dark drums – all topped by the instantly recognizable screech of the young Ozzy Osborne! Guitarist Tony Iommi virtually redefines rock use of the guitar with this record alone – and the Oz follows suit with some of the creepiest vocals set to record ever. Titles include the classics "Paranoid" and "Iron Man", plus "War Pigs", "Planet Caravan", "Electric Funeral", "Hand Of Doom", and "Rat Salad". LP, Vinyl record album

A big crossover moment from the Flaming Lips and their genius producer Keith Cleversley – filled with all the fuzz from before, but given all these cool, catchy elements that forever cemented the group's legacy in modern music! Titles include "She Don't Use Jelly", "Pilot Can At The Queer Of God", "Turn It On", "Moth In The Incubator", "When Yer Twenty Two", "Slow Nerve Action", and "Plastic Jesus". LP, Vinyl record album

One of the crowning early moments from the young Grateful Dead – a key Warner studio album that really has the group moving from psychedelic to more roots-oriented modes – maybe a Marin vibe versus a Haight sort of happening – with loads of great guitar and pedal from Jerry Garcia, plus lots more from the rest of the crew too. Robert Hunter wrote the tunes, Mickey Hart added in lots of percussion next to the drums - and titles include the very groovy "Truckin", plus "Box Of Rain", "Candyman", "Operator", "Sugar Magnolia", "Friend Of The Devil", "Ripple", "Brokedown Palace", "Attics Of My Life", and "Till The Morning Comes". LP, Vinyl record album

It's been many years since The Replacements made their amazing music – but the genius of the group lives anew, thanks to the release of this tremendous live set from 1986! The group had moved from an indie label to Sire by the time of the show, but there's a searing intensity to most of the tracks that recalls their Twin/Tone material at its best – much more punkish than in the final years of the group – played with a deftness and speed that they didn't even have a few years before! In fact, if we were to find a way to describe the set, we might well call it the great lost album between Let It Be and Tim – as it combines all the best aspects of those sets, and has impeccable songwriting mixed with the raw edge that the group had at the start. The recording quality is wonderful – the set was captured at the legendary Maxwell's club in Hoboken, back when Hoboken was cool enough to have a scene – and titles include fantastic remakes of "Fox On The Run" and "Black Diamond" – plus "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out", "Kiss Me On The Bus", "Hitchin A Ride", "If Only You Were Lonely", "Hold My Life", "I Will Dare", "Color Me Impressed", "Dose Of Thunder", "Bastards Of Young", "Baby Strange", "Take Me Down To The Hospital", "Left Of The Dial", "God Damn Job", "Answering Machine", "Gary's Got A Boner", "Waitress In The Ky", "Favorite Thing", and "Can't Hardly Wait". LP, Vinyl record album

An amazing second chapter for The Music Machine – working here with the last name of leader Sean Bonniwell in their name – in a groove that's even weirder and wilder than before! The group take on an odd new sound here – still the heady brew of fuzz and Hammond on their original garagey recordings from LA – but with a mode that also really lets Bonniwell's offbeat character come to the forefront – both in the odd lyrics, and his stark presentation in the lead – a Sunset Strip sense of personality that's almost up there with Kim Fowley at times! The record's definitely one of the weirder, more edgey sides cut for Warner Brothers in the mid 60s – and titles include "Astrologically Incompatible", "Double Yellow Line", "The Trap", "Soul Love", "Bottom Of The Soul", "Me Myself & I", and "The Eagle Never Hunts The Fly". LP, Vinyl record album

Rare live work from Back Door – a Brit trio with plenty of connections to the blues rock scene of the time, but one who has a fair bit of jazzy undertones too! The live set's presented by Alexis Korner, who also plays some guest guitar on the record – but the core sounds come from the heady trio of Ron Aspery on saxes, Colin Hodgkinson on bass, and Tony Hicks on drums – with vocals from both Aspery and Hodgkinson too! The tracks arguably have a bit more bite than the group's recordings for Warner Brothers at the time – and the set's very well recorded, and pulled from the vaults of the BBC. Titles include "Walking Blues", "Folksong", "Roberta", "Forget Me Daisy", and "His Old Boots". LP, Vinyl record album

The first full album from The Beau Brummels – an early Autumn Records effort before their headier days at Warner – cut with a style that could well make the group a key force to stop the British Invasion of the 60s! There's a great sense of jangle-pop throughout – a slight twang that would later unfold in different ways in Bradley's Barn, but which here works to give the tunes this little sense of sadness amidst the warmer melodies – which themselves are particularly great, and much better-crafted than some of the other US groups of this nature at the time. The boys definitely borrow a bit from The Beatles (including a name that gave them placement right next to the fab four in the record racks) – but maybe they're also drawing on some of the folk harmony groups from the SF scene they called home, too. Titles include "Laugh Laugh", "Just A Little", "Oh Lonesome Me", "They'll Make You Cry", "Stick Like Glue", "Not Too Long Ago", and "I Want More Loving". LP, Vinyl record album

A really cool package of work from one of the most obscure rockers to ever record for Imperial Records in the late 50s – the enigmatic Dennis Herrold, who only issued one single for the label at the time – presented here with the full work from his debut session, plus other material too! Herrold's a mighty sharp rocker – much more so than some of the pop acts on Imperial at the time – and he came to the label under the guidance of Dub Dickerson, who wrote all the tracks that Herrold sings – and who's also featured here on some related tracks too. The package is great – a cool colored vinyl 10" LP, a booklet of notes, and a bonus CD that features related tracks by Bob Luman, Warner Mack, Tony Wilson, and Justin Tubb – alongside Herrold tracks that include "Make With The Lovin", "You Arouse My Curiosity", "Don't Push Away", and "Hip Hip Baby". LP, Vinyl record album

A never-issued album from the great Jack Nitzsche – maybe one of his most down to earth recordings of the 70s, and one with a bit more ties to the studio roots that Jack had working with the hippest cats on the LA scene in the 60s! The set is a collaboration with Robert Downey – the famous filmmaker, who provided lyrics for the tracks – which mix with Jack's music at a level that's very much in the best Warner tradition of recordings by Van Dyke Parks, Randy Newman, and Mason Williams. There's a wonderfully earthy, honest, and adult feel to the music – and titles include "On The Moodus Run", "Marie", "Number Eleven", "I'm The Loneliest Fool", and "Hanging Around". LP, Vinyl record album

The lasting legacy of the enigmatic Ted Lucas – a somewhat mysterious figure who moved between Detroit and Los Angeles in the late 60s – but who works here with a sound that's completely his own! Part of the record was created as demo tracks for Warner Brothers – who'd issued some of Ted's earlier singles with other bands – but the material never got released on the bigger label, but has the kind of completely individual vibe that really captures the spirit of the best underground work Warner was handling at the time. Lucas sings shorter tracks on side one – but often with this weird sort of overlapping production style – creating his own vocal harmonies that resonate with slightly jagged guitar lines – flowing out in modes that partly illustrate his experience studying sitar with Ravi Shankar on the west coast, partly just show a love of unusual tunings that would have made Lucas great even as a solo instrumentalist. Side two definitely moves more into those modes – territory that resonates nicely with Sandy Bull or Robbie Basho – and titles include "Plain & Sane & Simple Melody", "Now That I Know", "Baby Where You Are", Robins Ride", "Sonny Boy Blues", and "Love & Peace Raga". LP, Vinyl record album