LIVE AT THE AQUARIUS THEATRE: THE FIRST PERFORMANCE
On July 21st, 1969, The Doors lit up the Aquarius Theatre in Hollywood with one of their most electrifying and underrated performances. “Live At The Aquarius Theatre: The First Performance” captures The Doors at their peak: loose, loud, and locked in.
Now available as a 180-gram 3-LP set from Analogue Productions, limited to 2,000 numbered copies and pressed at Quality Record Pressings, this edition features a 2016 mix by longtime Doors engineer Bruce Botnick. The result is a crystal-clear listening experience that brings new life to that summer night in ’69.
“The new mix is a revelation… The resulting clarity gives this concert new life – and as a bonus, side six features material from the soundcheck that preceded the show.” – Bruce Botnick
New Candys are set to make a powerful return in 2025 with the release of their highly anticipated fifth album, ‘The Uncanny Extravaganza’, via Fuzz Club Records. Marking a bold evolution in the band’s sound, the album blends their signature rock roots with electronic influences and cutting-edge production by Maurizio Baggio (The Soft Moon, Boy Harsher). The result is a genre-defying sonic experience that could be their most compelling work yet – veering between aggressive, gritty sounds, synth-driven rhythms, and dreamy, melancholic minimalism.
It also opens a fresh chapter for the band, showcasing a new lineup with core members Fernando Nuti (vocals, guitar, synth, programming) and Dario Lucchesi (bass, synth, programming), alongside Emanuele Zanardo (guitar, backing vocals) and Francesco Giacomin (drums, percussion, sampler). This record follows their 2021 release, ‘Vyvyd’, which led to shows across North America and Europe through late 2023.
The creation of ‘The Uncanny Extravaganza’ began in late 2022 when the band started working on new material. Nuti, the band’s primary songwriter, says: “It was an intense and exciting time. I had many songs and ideas that I wanted to try out with the band, and we ended up debuting ‘Crime Wave’ live. We don’t live close to each other and can’t rehearse very often, so using our home studios became the solution. This new process gave us the opportunity to experiment further, and it allowed me to quickly explore different arrangements to find the best one for each song”.
Lucchesi’s growing interest in electronic music also played a pivotal role in shaping the album’s direction, making his transition from drums to bass a natural evolution. He elaborates: “The line up change and the shift to bass created a situation where I could bring new ideas to the band. Working alone, with my own pace and methods, allowed me to explore and express myself more effectively. I found it refreshing to play remotely, exchanging projects and seeing the progress of the songs that both Fernando and I could work on, handling all the instruments and breaking away from the roles established on stage and on previous albums”. Their collaboration resulted in standout tracks like ‘Regicide’ and ‘Night Surfer’, with contributions from Zanardo and Giacomin further enriching the band’s evolving sound, culminating in some of the best songs New Candys have ever written.
Production was handled by Maurizio Baggio (The Soft Moon, Boy Harsher), who worked closely with the band throughout 2024, spreading the recording sessions across the year to focus on individual tracks in detail. “After self-producing all our records, except for the first, we wanted to collaborate closely with Maurizio on this one”, explains Nuti. “We’re thrilled with the final result. With “Vyvyd”, we just scratched the surface of electronic elements, this time we wanted to fully embrace them and find a new balance. I couldn’t imagine us finishing a song using only the instruments we normally play live, it wouldn’t have been interesting, contemporary, or new enough. Also, I couldn’t have cared less about making a stylistically and genre-cohesive album. In fact, the less categorizable and the more bizarre it was, the happier we were. I wanted each track to feel unexpected, a constant surprise. Just when you think you’ve figured out what kind of record it is, the next song makes you realize you’re wrong”.
The album’s sonic variety, a hallmark of New Candys’ music, is more pronounced than ever. Its title combines contrasting terms that reflect the band’s multifaceted artistic vision. From the aggressive, gritty sounds of ‘Regicide’ and ‘Crime Wave’ to the minimal, melancholic tones of ‘Aquawish’ and ‘Final Mission’, the record spans a wide range of styles. Tracks like ‘Night Surfer’ and ‘Wild Spaghetti West’ feature western and surf-influenced riffs, while ‘Cagehead’ and ‘You’ll Never Know Yourself’ offer psychedelic outros.
Lyrically, the album delves into surreal and sometimes cryptic themes, with a recurring motif related to water, inspired by the band’s proximity to Venice. Nuti reflects on how everything underwater transforms, appearing dreamlike, distorted, inaccessible, and often lifeless, and uses this imagery metaphorically, relating it to reality to inspire both the lyrics and the artwork. The album also conveys a sense of rebellion, considering how the pandemic provided an opportunity to rethink priorities, a chance that world politics missed.
With ‘The Uncanny Extravaganza’, New Candys continue to evolve, blending their signature sound with fresh influences to create what could be their most compelling work to date.
Under the moniker of Night Beats, Texas native Danny Lee Blackwell has spent the last fifteen years exploring a nexus of vintage rhythm & blues, after-midnight soul, and sun-scorched psychedelia. On Night Beats’ latest offering, Blackwell presents two markedly different renditions of his song “Behind theGreen Door.” On side A, we’re treated to a down-tempo, minor key track drenched in the haze of vice, as if some aspiring Motor City outfit had travelled down to Austin and snuck into the studio to cut a song while The 13th Floor Elevators were on a smoke break. Or perhaps it’s more akin to a meeting between Ray Charles, Skip Pence, and Link Wray. Or maybe it’s Joe Tex grappling with Gram Parsons. Or Duane Eddy pairing up with Cedric Bixler-Zavala. Or maybe it’s just years of Blackwell distilling and translating the sounds around him into his own concoction. Ultimately, “Behind the Green Door” is an invitation to enter the kingdom and dwell in the garden while the shadow of doubt looms nearby, a subconscious journey into the delights and pitfalls of unknown territories made manifest in the music of Night Beats.
Blackwell says of the single: “This song started as a lone star instrumental, something I pieced together in my studio in 2024. I imagined dusty roads and dimly lit dance halls. I wanted the guitars to shimmer like heat waves on an open road. The rhythm to pull like footsteps across a wooden floor, soaked in smoke and neon. The lyrics followed, drawn from past and present—unwavering love, transcendence. The ‘green door’ is that threshold between devotion and disillusionment. The story lives not just in the words, but in the tones and textures, if uncovered.”
Side B features the Rah John version of “Behind the Green Door.” According to the Night Beats camp, Rah John was discovered by Blackwell on his recent expedition to the island Koh Khram Yai, located off the coast of Pattaya in the Gulf of Thailand. Not much is known about the young artist besides his love for 70’s Thai disco and dancehall tapes received from local sailors. Hearing a streak of revelry buried in the Night Beats’ tune, Rah John summoned a sunnier, breezier, and more exotic side to the Rhythm and Blues sway of the original.
Los Angeles power trio Primitive Ring – Charles Moothart (Fuzz, Gøggs, Ty Segall’s Freedom Band), Bert Hoover (Hooveriii, Groop) and Jon Modaff (Hooveriii, Groop, Frankie & The Witch Fingers) – have been keeping the momentum rolling in every way they can since they emerged in early 2025. ‘Rolling Greed / Cocaine Man’, which came out September 12th 2025 and the latest in a string of 7”s released this year, further drives home the whole primal ethos of the band: just follow the internal compass and walk. Following releases on In The Red, Greenway Records and The Reverberation Appreciation Society, for the fourth instalment in this set of 45s they have joined forces with London-based record label Fuzz Club.
The first two Primitive Ring 7”s, ‘In The Ground / Golden In Your Eyes’ and ‘Poisonous Gift / TV City’, were shot straight from the hip. Written and recorded almost instantly on a Tascam 388 in Hoover’s garage with Eric Bauer. On ‘Burning Greed / Cocaine Man’ and its predecessor ‘Luck / I’ve Been WaitingFor You’, though, the approach was more deliberate.
This time the tracks were laid down over a few days in Moothart’s rehearsal space turned studio, after the band had begun playing live – the urgency and vision for the band much more palpably honed in as a result. “I think “Rolling Greed” is my favourite Primitive Ring song to date. It’s both more catchy and more wild than the previous tunes”, Moothart says: “We are all pushing ourselves a little harder on this track, while still trying to deliver a baseline bulletproof skull thumper.”
The B-side to ‘Rolling Greed”s scorched riffing comes in the shape of the more pared-back acoustic cut ‘Cocaine Man’, written on the fly with a loose, wide-open feel – “like a hangover nap under a redwood tree with a cool breeze blowing, kinda painful but ultimately surreal and enjoyable.” A vibe echoed in the lyrical subject matter just as much as the music: “Both of these songs are referential to modern day fascist realities, but again in a somewhat surreal way. ‘They’re rolling greed up in their sleeve, they’ll never leave or let us be’. ‘Calling the bluff on their game’. ‘Our father the wretched king, he’d sell the world to keep his diamond ring’. Devo was right.”
It was a difficult time for me when I started working on this album. I had just uprooted myself from the city apartment building where I’d been living for twenty years to a house in a more rural town two hours away where I knew no one when one of my best friends died (“Ashes”), and then my dog died (“ConstantCompanion”), then my mother was diagnosed with esophagus cancer (“Scratchers”). I was pretty depressed for a solid year (“Long Slow Nervous Breakdown”) and lost and very lonely (“Harmonizing With Myself”). I was thinking about fate and circumstance and about how I’d ended up where I was (“Where Are You Now”).
However much or hard I try, it seems, I’ve never had much control over much in my life.
I should say here that my mother’s younger brother was struck and killed by lighting at the age of 16 and when I asked her how this affected her worldview, she told me that it made her believe that there is a predetermined plan for each of us.
With this album I was contemplating these ideas–fate, powerlessness (“Popsicle”), the effects of trauma (“Wouldn’t Change Anything,” “Fall Apart”,” Strong Too Long”), the ways we can’t and don’t change.
I hold on to humility and gratitude (most of the time) rather than (constant) bitterness, and I have hope, mostly in the form of the music that I make, even if its subject matter is sometimes kind of grim. This practice of putting songs together has always sustained me and given my life—as uncontrollable as it feels– meaning and purpose, even in the darkest times. “Lighting Might Strike” is largely about that; the music itself is pulling me out of a big hole (“All I’ve Got”) in real time, in the time it took me to make the album.
Chris Anzalone played and recorded all the drums from Arlington, Massachusetts. Ed Valauskas played and recorded most of the bass from Cambridge, MA. I did the bass on a few songs, plus all the guitars, keyboards, vocals, and percussion, in my house (“My House Is Not My Dream House”) in western MA. The talented Pat DiCenso then mixed and mastered it all. The whole thing took about two years—broken up in pieces and chunks (I went on tour for six weeks last autumn, etc.) — to complete. – Juliana Hatfield
Frank Zappa’s famous 1978 Halloween show at New York City’s Palladium will be released as a box set on October 24th.
The Super Deluxe Edition of the set will feature 62 tracks on five CDs and will be packaged in a special box that includes a Zappa devil mask, a pitchfork with light and a book featuring rare photos and memorabilia.
In addition to the October 31st, 1978, concert at the Palladium, “Halloween 78” also includes the first concert from October 27th, which served as a run-up to the Halloween night performance. Zappa and his band — drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, bassists Arthur Barrow and Patrick O’Hearn, keyboardists Peter Wolf and Tommy Mars, guitarist Denny Walley, percussionist Ed Mann and violinist L. Shankar — performed the nearly four-hour Halloween concert in 1978 without a set list.
Throughout the performance, he led the group through favorites like “Dancin’ Fool,” “Peaches En Regalia” and “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow.” The show also featured some songs that had not been on Zappa recordings, including “Suicide Chump,” “Easy Meat,” “Keep It Greasy” and “The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing.”
listen too “Ancient Armaments” from the upcoming “Halloween 78“
The audio on this is amazing. “Ancient Armaments” was a frequent opener for Zappa shows during that era (as were other instrumental songs like “The Deathless Horsie”, “Persona Non Grata”, “The PurpleLagoon”, and “Twenty One”). Frank Zappa and his band played shows to please his audience ..and he always did. Almost 4 hours is something mostly unheard of, as many bands play the same 90 minute set from town to town. Not Frank though. He was always mixing things up and (according to band member interviews) would often not even have written the setlist until the day before/the day of the show. Frank played 2 shows at the Palladium on October 27th (matinee and evening shows), 2 shows at the Palladium on October 28th (matinee and evening shows), 1 show on October 29th and then the Halloween show on October 31st consisting of 36 songs! No show had the same setlist although most shows did include the obligatory Big Hit Single “Dancin’ Fool” . Really looking forward to hearing this complete “Halloween 78” release.
Halloween was Zappa’s favourite holiday; he staged annual concerts to celebrate the event, beginning in 1972 with a performance in New Jersey. In 1973, Zappa and his band performed in Chicago; in 1974, he began hosting the Halloween shows in New York.
“Halloween 78” marks the fourth special box set to include Zappa’s famous Halloween concerts, previously released have been “Halloween 77” came out in 2017, followed by “Halloween 73” in 2019 and 2020’s “Halloween 81″.
Two vinyl versions and a single CD edition will also be available.
The Antlers are back with a new album, “Blight”, the follow-up to 2021’s “Green to Gold“. It finds singer-songwriter Peter Silberman exploring the impacts of accelerating technology, artificial intelligence, and environmental neglect. “I felt like for the sake of the message of this record and what I was trying to get across with these songs, the details were what was going to make the difference, because they create an image that you then see in your mind and can be hard to shake,” he said in our inspirations interview. “‘Carnage’ is talking about these different instances of accidental animal cruelty, and for me, when I had seen some of that, I can’t erase the image from my mind. And it changes the way I think about the creatures I’m sharing space with.”
The Antlers have announced a new album. Blight, the follow-up to 2021’s “Green to Gold”, arrives October 10th via Transgressive Records. I enjoyed the band’s last album, but there’s nothing on it quite like the new single ‘Carnage’, which, in its hushed devastation, might stand among Peter Silberman’s best.
“‘Carnage’ is a song about a kind of violence we rarely acknowledge violence not born of cruelty, but of convenience,” Silberman said in a statement. “Innocent creatures are swept up in the path of destruction as their world collides with ours, and we barely notice.”
“Blight” was tracked over the course of a few years, with most of the recording and production taking place in Silberman’s home studio in upstate New York. “So much of the record was conceived while walking these massive fields,” he explained. “I felt like I was wandering around an abandoned planet.”
Expounding on the newfound directness of his lyrical approach, Silberman added: “The consequences of accelerating technology and environmental neglect feel imminent; that sense of urgency made me want to speak more candidly. The present-day specifics are so unsettling, and tomorrow’s possibilities are so surreal… there’s no need to mince words.”
Following“Green to Gold”, Silberman helped co-produce Wild Pink’s breakout “ILYSM” and released the debut album from Cowboy Sadness, his instrumental band featuring David Moore (Bing & Ruth) and Nicholas Principe (Port St. Willow).
It’s early it must be time to announce what’s going to be released on Record Store Day Black Friday, which is officially slated for November 28th, 2025. Over 170 vinyl releases have been slated for that most hallowed of days for collectors, so check your budget now. there are special pressings of classic releases by Prince & The Revolution, Fleetwood Mac, Phil Collins, Led Zeppelin, Talking Heads, Bob Dylan, Alice Cooper and more.
I’ll list as many highlights as I can below, but if you want to see the full list immediately, go here, and scroll down to the “Web” and “PDF” options to see what’s what. Keep in mind that RSD releases are designated as follows: a) Exclusives: These titles are physically released only at indie record stores; b) RSD First: These titles are initially found at indie record stores only, but they might be released to other retailers at a later date at some point in the future (though not always); and c) Small Run/Regional Titles: These releases are either regionally based and sold at specific stores, or have press runs under 1,000 copies.
As many of you already know, the SRPs are never shared ahead of RSD, but they are usually fairly consistent across the board, and typically dependent on the size of the run and relative availability. If you miss getting what you want on RSD proper, prices tend to ratchet upward on eBay, Discogs, and elsewhere on the interwebs.
The RSD PR team highlighted a few of the titles-to-come they deemed important and/or of note, Highlights of my own. For the Dylanologists of the world, RSD is celebrating the May 1963 LP “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”, 62 years after its initial release by “re”-presenting the album as Dylan intended that is, and I quote, “before the suits at Columbia Records censored some of the tracks.
At any rate, “The Original Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” LP comes via Legacy (RSD Exclusive; 13,000 copies), and it includes “Rocks and Gravel,” “Let Me Die in My Footsteps,” “Rambling, Gambling Willie,” and “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues.” (The latter song is the one that prompted Dylan to walk off the Ed Sullivan Show when Ed wouldn’t let him play it.) some of the “Freewheelin’ tracks also appear on Bob’s Dylan’s upcoming “The Bootleg Series Vol. 18: Through The Open Window, 1956-1963” 4LP box set.
RSD Black Friday also sees the release of a very special Bob Dylan “Masters of War” 7in single, recorded in Alan Lomax’s apartment in 1962. The B-side of this 7-incher will be a conversation Alan and Bob had after the recording . Additional/other RSD releases/announcements get added in right up until the date .
After decades of, er, hard work, Spinal Tap release the “RSD Scalpers Edition” of their “The End Continues” soundtrack album via Interscope (RSD Exclusive; 2,000 copies). In their official parlance, this RSD Black Friday release is, quote, “sure to please the flippers and hardcore fans who must own everything that Spinal Tap releases. ”The Scalpers Edition” includes three additional previously unheard tracks, a “unique” album cover, and a poster. Plus, and this is key, the vinyl itself is pressed on — of course! — 181g vinyl!
For the more modern-music-seeking out there, RSD Black Friday’s “Billie Eilish Live” EP on Interscope is a special 10in edition featuring live recordings of “Skinny,” “Wildflower,” “Birds of a Feather,” and “L’Amour de Ma Vie,” all culled from Billie’s recent London Palladium show (RSD First; 20,000). Chappell Roan places her latest two songs back-to-back for the first time on her own RSD Black Friday 7in single via Island, “The Island” b/w “The Giver” (RSD Exclusive; 30,000 copies).
Meanwhile, 2025 Record Store Day Ambassador is Post Malone who continues to show his love for indie record stores by offering fans an LP titled “Long Bed” on Mercury/Republic, featuring nine tracks that were previously only available digitally (RSD Exclusive; 5,000 copies).
Sir Elton John — an inveterate record collector in his own right — and 2020 Record Store Day Ambassador Brandi Carlisle performed songs from their collaborative 2025 release “Who Believes inAngels?” (as well as songs from their own respective catalogue’s) for a televised live special, and some of those performances comprise the “Who Believes in Angels? Live at the London Palladium” 2LP set on Interscope (RSD Exclusive; 4,000 copies).
Also on the master RSD Black Friday list are (again, in their words) “sure-to-be-coveted” vinyl from the likes of The Doors,Rhino will release “Live in Copenhagen, 1968“, featuring a previously unreleased concert in its entirety the legendary band recorded at Falokner Centret in Copenhagen, Denmark on September 17th, 1968. The 2 LP release on crystal-clear vinyl includes both the early and late sets, featuring electrifying performances of “Break On Through (To The Other Side),” “Light My Fire,” and “Hello, I Love You,” among others. Only 5,300 copies will be pressed globally.
An interesting set from Joni Mitchell when she was on Bob Dylan’s “The Rolling Thunder Tour These recordings of her sets from Bob Dylan’s legendary all-star tour were released for the first time last year as part of the boxed set “Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 4,” but this is the first stand-alone edition, and many of the tracks were not previously on vinyl.
Brendan Benson, The Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, the Grateful Dead, Prince & The Revolution, Miles Davis, George Harrison, The Flaming Lips, and Led Zeppelin, among many others. All of this vinyl goodness is accompanied by, as the RSD cognoscenti oh-so-aptly put it, “something special that music fans can get only at a record store.”
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, “Live in 24” (1,500 copies) At last, some shaped vinyl — specifically, a paper airplane shaped EP. The four song collection was inspired by the band’s “Flight b741” album and incorporates songs from various live recordings as part of the band’s Bootlegger series.
Those RSD diggers going for deeper dives can seek out the Black Friday offerings from the likes of Jeff Tweedy/Wilco/Daniel Johnston, Bobby Womack, Deltron 3030, Nico, Tangerine Dream, Ramones, DavidJohansen and The Harry Smiths, 2 Chainz, La Luz, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Sugar, and Warren Zevon, with a live recording, “Epilogue: Live At The Edmonton Folk Music Festival” (2,200 copies) Zevon’s final concert, recorded August 9th, 2002 at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, now available for the first time for RSD. It’s on double black vinyl with an etched fourth side, with liner notes from longtime Zevon band member Matt Cartsonis, who accompanied him for the set no one knew would be his last.
along with holiday releases from Kesha and Devo.
Randy Newman, “Trouble In Paradise: Demos” (3,500 copies) Previously unissued demos from one of Newman’s most revered albums, the one that brought “I Love L.A.” — including some that didn’t make the final album, like “Big Fat Country Song.”
Also a interesting release from Talking Heads, “Tentative Decisions: Demos & Live” (7,500 copies) Recorded by the trio of David Byrne, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz when they were students at Rhode Island School of Design and in a college band called the Artistics. In the spring semester of 1974, the band gathered in Frantz’s Benefit Street apartment to record a cassette demo tape, which included future classics “Warning Sign” and “Psycho Killer.” This collection includes this newly discovered material alongside an additional 11 demo and live tracks recorded by the original trio line-up of the band in 1975-76. Unreleased Talking Heads stuff is always some of the first stuff to disappear, as recent-era Record Store Days go, and while 7,500 copies once would have been considered a lot for an RSD exclusive, it no longer is, so pick this one up early .
A few more MM RSD bulletpoints now, zeroing in on some of our fave RSD Releasers, You can always count on Rhino to cover a myriad of requisite RSD bases, and this year they’re serving up 35 exclusive albums from their diverse artists roster. Highlights include LPs from Phil Collins, The Doors, Matchbox Twenty, Joni Mitchell, Son Volt, an archival live set for Van Halen (this time from 1995), in addition to a Rhino Reserve title from Curtis Mayfield (“Curtis“; RSD Exclusive; 2,700 copies), a Devo picture disc, and 12in releases from a-ha, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and The Flaming Lips, along with box sets from Dwight Yoakam and a special release from Arthur Lee’s band Love “The Album Collection”.
This year’s RSD selection from archival giants Craft Recordings features first-ever vinyl editions, rare live recordings, vibrant colour pressings, and imaginative new packages that span funk, rock, punk, psych, salsa, soundtracks, holiday jazz, and more.
Creed — “Live in San Antonio” on 2 LP metallic silver vinyl, limited to 4,800 copies globally. Captured November 14th, 1999, at San Antonio’s Freeman Coliseum, “Live in San Antonio” drops you right into the roar of a sold-out Texas crowd as Creed storms through the “Human Clay” era. Newly remastered for vinyl, the set bottles the band’s late-’99 ferocity—Scott Stapp’s baritone cutting through Mark Tremonti’s towering riffs, underpinned by Brian Marshall and Scott Phillips in lockstep. The 13-song sprint balances fist-pumping anthems (“Are You Ready?,” “What If,” “My Own Prison”) with breakout hits (“Higher,” “With Arms Wide Open”) and fan-favourite deeper cuts.
Jazz Dispensary’s latest cinematic caper, “Green Bullets“, a fuel-injected compilation that imagines a lost ’70s heist flick.
Other Craft RSD Black Friday exclusives include Jonathan Richman’s tender “You Must Ask the Heart” finally making it onto vinyl; “Flowers in the Afternoon: Late-1960s Sunshine”, the third entry in Craft’s psych/garage RSD series; the first-time-on-vinyl “Punk Goes Acoustic“, an all-analog cut of Ray Barretto’s salsa landmark “Together“; and two score-lover must-gets: Alan Silvestri’s “The Back to the Future Trilogy” .
A pair of Warner Records limited-edition first-time pressings of albums by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Benson Boone deserve extra attention. Boone’s 2023 “Pulse” EP emerges on electric yellow and bright blue splatter vinyl, and it also includes a 12x24in poster (RSD Exclusive; 6,000 copies).
Meanwhile, Tom Petty &The Heartbreakers’ “The Live Anthology – From The Vaults Vol. 1” 2LP set boasts a foil-stamped number cover, and it appears on turquoise blue vinyl. As you may recall, in November 2009, Petty and Co. released “The Live Anthology”, a massive 7LP box set of live material that encompassed the band’s career up to that point, with a track-list curated by Petty himself. A separate, very limited-edition version of “The Live Anthology” was also released that included a bonus CD with 14 tracks of additional Petty classics, rarities, and covers. These 14 tracks are now being released on vinyl for the first time—and I’m all-in for this one, beyond a shadow of a doubt (RSD First – 7,500 copies for the U.S. market; 11,000 copies total worldwide).
Rhino will release “Fleetwood Mac: Live 1975″, which captures the incredible electricity of the band’s first tour with the legendary line-up of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joining Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Christine McVie. Recorded 50 years ago at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ on October 17th, 1975, and Jorgensen Auditorium at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT on October 25th, 1975, the album features the band’s at-the-time recent hits “Rhiannon” and “Landslide,” along with some early Fleetwood Mac favourites, including “Hypnotized” and “Oh Well.” Pressed on vinyl for the very first time and limited to 5,000 copies globally.
Led Zeppelin’s classic single “Trampled Under Foot” is being reissued as a reproduction of the original UK 7-inch. The release features “Black Country Woman” on the B-side.
This year’s RSD Black Friday offerings from Sony Legacy include live performances, soundtracks, and unreleased rarities. Besides the earlier-noted Dylan title and LPs from Cage the Elephant, Danny Elfman, Wilco/Jeff Tweedy/Daniel Johnston, and the intriguingly self-explanatory Lou Reed/Various collaborative offering the “Metal Machine Music: Power to Consume, Vol. 1”, limited to 2,100 copies. Inspired by LouReed’s groundbreaking 1975 noise opus “Metal Machine Music“, this collection assembles a formidable line-up of sonic provocateurs—Aaron Dilloway, Drew McDowall, Thurston Moore, Pharmakon,The Rita, and Mark Solotroff—to explore the outer edges of distortion, feedback, and raw electronic texture. Each artist channels the spirit of Reed’s original manifesto of anti-music, pushing their own boundaries through modular synthesis, tape manipulation, harsh noise, and industrial decay. The result is a visceral, immersive experience that celebrates chaos, confronts structure, and redefines what music can be.
Grateful Dead, “The Warfield, San Francisco, CA — Oct 4 & 6, 1980” (6,000 copies on vinyl, unknown quantity on CD) Two acoustic sets from the Warfield shows in October 1980, celebrating the Grateful Dead’s 15th Anniversary. On 2-LP, 180-Gram Vinyl with Stoughton tip-on jacket. Also available on 2CD. Produced for release by David Lemieux.
Legacy will release Wilco/Jeff Tweedy/Daniel Johnston’s “dBpm 15” on a single red LP, limited to 3,400 copies. Twelve rarities and unreleased tracks highlighting fifteen years of music on dBpm Records. Most available for the first time on vinyl, the set includes a previously unavailable version of “Casper The Friendly Ghost” by Daniel Johnston and Jeff Tweedy, and Wilco’s cover of The Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down.”
we also get Billy Joel’s “Live From LongIsland” 3LP set with an awful cover that makes it look like one of those Music For Pleasure releases, which highlights his Nylon Curtain tour homecoming concert at Nassau Coliseum on December 29th, 1982,
The Piano Man’s classic Nylon Curtain Tour homecoming concert at Nassau Coliseum newly mixed from the original master tapes and produced by Billy’s longtime live sound engineer Brian Ruggles. Only 1,500 copies will be pressed globally.
Beside those releases, Prince & The Revolution’s “Around the World in a Day: The Singles” is on RSD tap, which celebrates the 40th anniversary of the titular album that was originally released in April 1985. The audio is newly remastered by original mastering engineer Bernie Grundman, with additional mastering by Chris James, and this vibrant 7-incher box set features all four singles from the album (“Raspberry Beret,” “Paisley Park,” “Pop Life,” and the extended version of “America”), plus a brand new exclusive 7in single of the 1985 track “4 the Tears in Your Eyes,” which Prince originally contributed to that year’s “We Are The World” charity album. Each 45 is presented in a unique vinyl coloured vinyl and are presented in their original 7in sleeves in a clamshell box, all featuring elements of the titular LP sleeve that was originally designed by Doug Henders (RSD Exclusive; in a quite-apropos run of 1,985 copies).
Additionally, Sony Legacy serves up Miles Davis’ “Live at The Plugged Nickel: December 23, 1965 – Set Two“, which is culled from what has long been considered to be one of the most legendary engagements in jazz history. That night saw trumpeter Miles, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, keyboardist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams deliver a masterclass in what’s been described as “controlled volatility, dismantling tradition and reshaping their language night after night.” I’ve also been told that Legacy will reissue the box set containing all seven performed sets of “The Complete Plugged Nickel Sessions” in January 2026 as their first salvo in a year-long Miles Davis Centennial celebration — but first we get this 2LP Black Friday/black vinyl primer that contains over an hour of familiar songs turned inside out, including standards such as “All of You” and “My Funny Valentine” and Miles originals like “So What” and “Agitation” (RSD Exclusive; 5,900 copies).
A strange one is Robbie Robertson, “Filmworks: Insomnia” (1,800 copies) A compilation of Robertson’s music and scores from the films “The Last Waltz,” “Carny” and “Raging Bull,” including a previously unissued track from “Carny.” Jon Burlingame wrote the liner notes. It’s being released in conjunction with Robertson’s posthumously published memoir “Insomnia,” also due this autumn.
Phil Collins will see “12″ers” on vinyl, limited to 3,500 globally as an RSD Exclusive via Rhino. As part of a whole host of celebrations to mark 40 years of Phil Collins’ spectacular third studio album “No Jacket Required, 12″ers” is reissued as a special limited edition six-track EP of extended mixes, with a track list previously only released on CD and one track making its debut on vinyl. The 12-inch remixes are an immersive sonic experience, providing a refreshed and extended look at some of Phil Collins’ most loved solo work.
B.B. King, “Broadcasting the Blues: Live from Germany & Sweden” (2,500 copies) Two European concerts from 1968 and 1973, featuring Sonny Freeman and the Kingpins, and a full horn section for the Stockholm, all never before released. Derek Trucks is among those contributing to the copious liner notes.
Award-winning producer Zev Feldman, the “Jazz Detective” himself, is back for Record Store Day BlackFriday with four historic, never-before-released albums spanning punk, jazz, and blues from Bad Brains, Bill Evans, Yusef Lateef, and B.B. King. Each title has been restored and mastered from archival recordings, and they are said to offer fresh insight into landmark moments across music history — from Bad Brains’ earliest live shows to unheard Bill Evans trio sessions (RSD Exclusive; 4,000 copies), Yusef Lateef’s spiritual experiments, and B.B. King’s powerful 1968 and 1973 European concerts. These RSD releases underscore Feldman’s curatorial mission to bring lost performances to light and celebrate genre-defining legacies.
The Flaming Lips, “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots – “Live at the Zoo Amphitheatre, Oklahoma City, August 30, 2024” (4,000 copies) The band performed the album “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots” live in its entirety at the Oklahoma City Zoo Amphitheatre on August 30th, 2024. The hometown show will be released in a 2-LP, 45rpm colour vinyl format with new artwork by Wayne Coyne.
Finally, Mack Avenue comes to the RSD Black Friday party with a legendary album from the Strata-East catalogue The Descendants of Mike and Phoebe’s “A Spirit Speaks” on 180g vinyl with audio cut directly from the original master tapes. (Three other classic Strata-East titles from Charles Tolliver & Stanley Cowell, The Heath Brothers, and Cecil McBee will follow on December .)
One of many projects on Strata-East spearheaded by bassist, composer, and arranger Bill Lee (father of legendary director Spike Lee), The Descendants of Mike and Phoebe’s only album, 1974’s “A Spirit Speaks”, enlisted Bill Lee’s brother and sisters — Clif Lee, A. Grace Lee Mims, and Consuela Lee Moorehead — to form a group named in tribute to their enslaved ancestors. Combining elements of jazz, gospel, soul, and blues, among other influences, “A Spirit Speaks” has become one of the most sought-after albums from the Strata-East catalogue — and rightly so (RSD First; 1,500 copies).
Music fans will also be able to purchase Icona Pop and Charli XCX‘s ‘I Love It’ LP, Young Fathers‘ ‘White Men Are Black Men Too (10th Anniversary Edition)’, a 12″ of Faithless‘ hit ’90s single ‘Insomnia’,
And, with that — happy RSD list compiling, and happy hunting come Friday November 28th!
Celebrate 50 years of Patti Smith’s debut studio album with the release of “Horses” (50th Anniversary). The 2-set features the iconic album remastered direct from the original master tapes and previously unreleased outtakes and rarities – including Patti Smith’s 1975 RCA audition tape. The Punk poet’s landmark debut celebrates half a century with an expanded anniversary edition produced by bassist Tony Shanahan.
Originally released in 1975, “Horses” was the introductory statement from Patti Smith, her debut album recorded at Electric Lady Studios and produced by John Cale of The Velvet Underground.
Five decades later, it remains a music and cultural linchpin, a release that made her an icon among the New York City punk community and eventually led to her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.
On October 10th, “Horses” will be revisited by Legacy Recordings, the catalogue division of Sony Music Entertainment, for a 50th anniversary reissue packed with bonus material.
On February 3rd, 1975, ex-Animals singer Eric Burdon headlined two shows at the Main Point, a 250-seater coffeehouse in Bryn Mawr, a Philadelphia suburb. The opening act was singer-poet Patti Smith, making her first hometown appearance (she partly grew up in the city) after a year of New York nights with guitarist Lenny Kaye and pianist Richard Sohl and a 45 of primal blues and incantation, “Hey Joe/Piss Factory”, released at the end of ’74. Smith was also showing off a combo with more groove and boom; bassist Ivan Kral joined four days earlier. I was there as the Main Point’s PR guy and keen to see what I had wrought after urging my boss to book Smith for the gig.
On February 6th, Smith was headed for her own transcendence, her debut LP, “Horses”, recording demos at RCA’s 6th Avenue studios with Kaye, Sohl and Kral, an event so newsworthy in the early ferment of New York punk that John Rockwell of the New York Times mentioned it in his column the next day. RCA barely got a chance to pass on Smith. Rockwell soon reported that Arista’s Clive Davis had swooped in and signed her. There was another demo session with the quartet – then, in June, a drummer, Jay Dee Daugherty. Over five, sometimes contentious weeks with producer John Cale that fall, the quintet made “Horses” eight tracks of electric medicine dance, Brill Building yearning and frenzied, improvised levitation – at Jimi Hendrix’s 8th Street sanctuary, Electric Lady, where Smith cut “Hey Joe“.
On the final day of mixing, as “dawn broke over lower Manhattan,” Kaye wrote in his memoir, Lightning Striking, “we walked up the stairs, out of the studio, into the future.”
Released on November 10th, 1975, “Horses” is the punk-rock landmark that keeps on giving, a raging, renewing magic and dreaming made with rock’s fundamental bones by an insurgent bard who found her voice and mission at the crossroads of Leader Of The Pack, Like A Rolling Stone and Howl. Smith’s infamous refusal of easy salvation at the front of Van Morrison’s “Gloria” the nine-minute passage through grief to escape in the wah-wah mourning and doo-wop scatting of Birdland; the combined invocation of Smith’s pole star, the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, and Wilson Pickett in “Land“, the band reading her vocal moods and soaring with empathic stampede
This release will feature the iconic original album remastered direct from the original 1/4” master tapes, as well as previously unreleased outtakes and rarities, including Patti Smith’s 1975 RCA audition tape. Among the bonus material are eight previously never-before-released songs. One of those, “Snowball,” is available to preview the reissue:
Half a century after rewriting the rules of rock, Patti Smith is giving “Horses” the deluxe treatment it deserves. Out October 10th, the 50th anniversary reissue comes with demos, outtakes, and four unreleased tracks, including the newly surfaced “Snowball.” The record’s been remastered from the original tapes, which means John Cale’s production should hit even harder. On top of that, Smith is plotting a fall tour across the US and Europe and dropping a new memoir, Bread of Angels, in November. Punk may not have had a blueprint, but “Horses” came pretty close, and it’s wild that it still feels urgent in 2025
Hello, everyone. This is Patti. When we recorded “Horses” I hoped to communicate with like minds, the misfits, disenfranchised, those scraping away off the beaten track. I am quite moved that the community I hoped to find, found us as well and those that survived are still at work. In October Sony will release a 50th anniversary edition of “Horses”. There are 6,500 vinyls, including a double album compiled of unearthed recordings, live pieces from CBGB, youthful efforts scavenged from half a century ago. I am grateful to all who helped form it and the people who have supported it for five decades.
Irish-born, Australian-based multi-instrumentalist Bonnie Stewart releases her second album of indie-rock-inspired song writing, “music that is both mellow and hazy and driven and edgy, traversing art-folk, psychedelia, dream-pop and grunge.”
With heavy thrums of detuned guitars entwined with layers of angelic airy vocals, the forthcoming new album “Strangest Feeling” shows Bonniesongs’ masterful ability to balance sound and silence, reminding us that music, at its core, is simple vibration moving through air. Bonniesongs makes music that is both mellow and hazy and driven and edgy, traversing art-folk, psychedelia, dream-pop and grunge. She could also be compared to art-rock and alternative artists such as PJ Harvey, Feist and Grouper for her music’s raw, hypnotic qualities, although Bonniesongs’ style sits more in a ‘ethereal grunge’ category of its own, one she’s been carving out since her 2019’s debut album “Energetic Mind” (Small Pond/Art As Catharsis). Once described by artist Fink, who championed Bonniesongs heavily on his KCRW radio show and toured Australia with her early this year as having “a deceptively hard edged soft-core.”
“Strangest Feeling” is a collection of songs written amongst the limbo of the lockdowns and the transition back to life. A flavour of autumn runs through the album, intwined with themes of spells, the ocean and Halloween. The punky riffs and driving drums of new single ‘Olive Oil’ and the album’s second single ‘Bittersweet’ are reminders of fun and joy, with ‘Bittersweet’ offering a slice of unadulterated punky grunge in the playful ode to finding fun in chaos, inspired by Bonnie’s stay in New Zealand during the pandemic.
from the Bonniesongs upcoming album Strangest Feeling
The Fat Angel Sings 