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Music

15 Best Live Albums You’ve Never Heard

 

Ever since I got into music in the late-’70s, I’ve been a big fan of live albums. But I’m also very particular when it comes to them; I only like them if they’re organic, cruelty free, and soundboard-to-stereo. In other words, they have to be from a single show, be the whole show, not be “fixed” in the studio, and be professionally recorded by the band, from the soundboard, or broadcast on the radio or the Internet. If they’re two or three shows mixed together, missing songs, feature overdubbed guitar parts and vocals, or recorded by some guy who snuck a tape recorder in by stuffing it down his pants — a guy I’ve been — then I don’t care.

But while I may be super picky about what live albums I’ll put in my speakers, there are actually quite a few great ones that meet the criteria. They’re just not always the most readily available.

Here’s fifteen great sounding, mostly uncut, single show live albums you might’ve missed.

 

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Music News Toys TV

Funko Announce Babymetal & Doraemon POP! Toys

 

Fans of anime, manga, and Japanese metal idol rejoice! Funko have announced that they will release Babymetal POP! toys this December, preceded by a Doraemon POP! toy this November.

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Music Reviews

Matthew Shipp Trio “The Conduct Of Jazz” Review

 

While he’s considered one of the better jazz piano players around these days, Matthew Shipp is mostly thought of as being one of the best free jazz musicians in New York City’s avant-garde scene. But on The Conduct Of Jazz (CD, digital), he pulls back a bit for a more conventional but still edgy-adjacent collection.

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Music Reviews

Sonny Rollins / Don Cherry: “Complete Live At The Village Gate 1962” Review

 

In July of 1962, saxophonist Sonny Rollins was joined by cornetist Don Cherry, bassist Bob Cranshaw, and drummer Billy Higgins for a four night stand at New York City’s Village Gate.

But while this quartet performed twenty songs during this engagement, only three were ever released (on Sonny’s album Our Man In Jazz), and even then, one of them was heavily edited.

Thankfully, the complete four night stint has now been released as a six-CD boxed set titled Complete Live At The Village Gate 1962. But while the music is great, the way it’s presented in this collection might irritate some picky purists.

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Music

Vintage Interview: Rush’s Alex Lifeson from 1996

 

In my career, I’ve interviewed a lot of interesting musicians. But since many of the magazines and websites that originally published those stories aren’t around anymore, I’ve decided to pull some of these lost interviews out of my archive.

The following interview with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson took place in July of 1996, at his home outside Toronto, when the band were gearing up to release their album Test For Echo. Parts of this interview were used in a piece I did on him for the music magazine Huh.

(You can also read my interview with Rush’s Geddy Lee, which was done for the same article, here.)

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Music

Vintage Interview: Rush’s Geddy Lee from 1996

 

In my career, I’ve interviewed a lot of interesting musicians and actors. But since many of the magazines and websites that originally published those stories aren’t around anymore, I’ve decided to pull some of the more interesting interviews out of my archive.

The following interview with Rush bassist, keyboardist, and singer Geddy Lee took place in July of 1996, at the offices of his manager when the band were gearing up to release their album Test For Echo. Parts of this interview were used in a piece I did on him for the music magazine Huh.

(I also did an interview with Rush’s Alex Lifeson for the same story, which you can read here.)

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Music Reviews

“Miles Davis At Newport 1955-1975 The Bootleg Series Vol 4” Review

Miles Davis @ the Newport Jazz Festival '69.

 

Since launching in 2011’s with Live In Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol. 1, the Miles Davis Bootleg series has presented largely unheard (save for among hardcore collectors) and mostly complete live shows from some of the iconic jazz trumpeter’s best groups.

But now, with Miles Davis At Newport 1955-1975 The Bootleg Series Vol 4 (CD, digital), this series is switches gears, and instead of being dedicated to a single band, this has Miles playing eight shows with seven different groups over eight different years of the titular festival.

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Music Reviews

Faith No More Sol Invictus Review

As we’ve seen so many times, reunion albums are, at worst, unlistenable, and at best, pale reflections of what once was great. Just consider the recent ones by Van Halen, Black Sabbath, Soundgarden…the list goes on. But just as they’ve so often bucked trends, musically, so too do Faith No More buck the reunion slump with Sol Invictus (CD, digital, vinyl), which mostly sounds like they’ve picked up where they left off nearly twenty years ago.

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Books Music

Exclusive Interview: “Before The Chop II” Writer Henry Rollins

 

Every week for the last four years, Henry Rollins has written a column for the L.A. Weekly, a free alternative weekly newspaper in Los Angeles. And almost every week, some editor cuts something out or changes the title.

But while you might think this would send him into some Hulk-like rage — especially if you don’t know much about the man and his professionalism — Henry instead just saves the originals for an ongoing series of books he calls Before The Chop, the first volume of which is available both physically and digitally .

With the second, Before The Chop II (digital) now out, I sent him some questions via email to ask how much his editors change his work, if these changes have impacted how he writes for them, and why — after twenty years of writing about music, his life, and other real things — he’s never penned a work of fiction.

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