rock

  Capitol   After hitting home runs with their first two albums, members of The Band have been living down that legacy. This abridged compilation of a 2005 Band boxed set contains 19 tracks, with a deluxe-edition DVD including six film clips. The CD starts with a rousing recording of Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks, […]

  Geffen   You can’t sum up popular Nineties music any better than with Scottish/American alt-rockers Garbage. A new compilation album, set to be released on July 17, features the “best of” Garbage, as well as a bonus disc of remixes.   All of the band’s major hits’ “Stupid Girl,” “Only Happy When It Rains,” […]

Reprise In recent months, Neil Young fans have had much reason to rejoice. In November, Young began releasing albums from what is reportedly a vast vault of archives.   The first was a ripping good show from Neil with Crazy Horse in 1970 at the Fillmore East in New York City. This, the second in […]

Rhino Before you hit the snooze button on another batch of vintage reissues, dig this: The 40th anniversary mix of the debut Doors album plays at the correct speed in comparison to slightly slow and off-key previous versions. Add a reinstated Jim Morrison vocal on the opening track, “Break on Through (To the Other Side),” […]

Virgin Post-Blur and post-Gorillaz, Damon Albarn has gotten ex-Clash bassist Paul Simonon out of retirement, and brings along former Verve guitarist Simon Tong and Fela Kuti’s drummer, Tony Allen. If it’s a supergroup, it’s a low-key one; it ain’t CSNY. Albarn’s vocal and keyboard fingerprints are most prominent, Simonon plays snakily and subterranean throughout, and […]

Capitol/I.R.S.  This latest collection of R.E.M.’s catalogue before its jump to major label Warner Bros. has it all, from “Gardening at Night” to the always-impressive “It’s the End of the World as We Know It “¦ and I Feel Fine.” What’s most interesting is what R.E.M. defines as hits; “Feeling Gravity’s Pull” might leave one […]

Hollywood Los Lobos: proof that the family that plays together stays together. For close to 30 years, they’ve kept the same lineup, adding sax lad Steve Berlin along the way, and leaving a trail of good to great records behind them.   They’re as rooted as The Band was, but they’re not afraid to splatter […]

Rhino Front one of rock’s all-time biggest bands and your solo career is bound to suffer in comparison, whether you’re Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger or Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, who gets an elaborate post-Zep retrospective with “Nine Lives,” a mammoth boxed set containing all nine of his solo albums.   No Plant album has made […]

Drag City  To borrow one of its own song titles, Imitation Electric Piano’s second album makes for “Relatively Good Times.” That it’s not better lies in the band’s decision to make a marked departure in its signature sound: adding full-time vocals.   One of many offshoots of post-rock giant Stereolab, the band debuted in 2001 […]

Misra Records The primary goal for every band is to distinguish a new record from its previous work and all the other acts in its corner of music. It did not bode well for Centro-matic’s “Fort Recovery” that, after several listens, I still had to check my CD player to remind myself who I was […]