Posts by Joey Willis

Getting signed to a major label with two albums full of “dick and fart” jokes doesn’t seem like something achievable for most, but that is exactly what blink-182 did. Originally signed to Grilled Cheese, a subdivision of Cargo Records, Blink released Cheshire Cat and Dude Ranch. While the former mostly gained attention in the 90s […]

The Lowest Pair is an American folk duo made up of Kendl Winter and Palmer T. Lee, known for their intertwined vocal harmonies and banjo-forward songwriting. Formed in 2013, the pair has built a dedicated following through records that balance traditional folk roots with plainspoken, emotionally direct lyrics. Having a particularly prolific run in their […]

Alison Krauss & Union Station had already been together in various forms for more than a decade by the time their Live album was recorded in 2002. Krauss emerged as a prodigy in the bluegrass world, but Union Station became the vehicle that allowed her to broaden that tradition. With Ron Block on banjo, Dan […]

Few Manchester groups configured the late-’80s shift toward dance-leaning guitar music as naturally as Happy Mondays. Rising out of Salford’s post-punk sprawl, they fused guitar music with club culture at a moment when those worlds rarely overlapped. Factory Records gave them a platform, but it was the band’s chemistry of Shaun Ryder’s conversational vocals, Paul […]

For this year’s Record Store Day Black Friday lineup, Rhino puts The Doors front and center with Live in Copenhagen, a previously unreleased 1968 performance finally pulled from the vault. Pressed on crystal-clear vinyl and limited to 5,300 copies, the 2-LP set captures the band’s full early show from September 17th at the Falkoner Centret […]

For Record Store Day Black Friday 2025, Matchbox Twenty digs into their archive for a release that longtime fans probably didn’t expect but will immediately appreciate. Mad Season (Live 2001) arrives as a 2LP set pressed on opaque Flavors Truffle–colored vinyl and limited to 3,500 copies. More importantly, it marks the band’s first full-length live […]

Fifteen years on, What Separates Me From You feels like the moment A Day To Remember redrew the boundaries of what their hybrid of metalcore and pop-punk could hold. For the anniversary pressing, Craft Recordings has repressed the album on a Transparent Sea Glass variant with metallic album artwork. What Separates Me From You finds […]

Flowers in the Afternoon: Late-1960s Sunshine arrives as the third entry in Craft Recording’s psych/garage RSD trilogy. Where Poppies leaned into fuzzed-out oddities and Double Whammy played in Nuggets-style garage grit, this new installment zeroes in on that brief cultural moment when harmony, melody, and AM-radio optimism collided. Framed around producer and archivist Alec Palao’s […]

Creed’s rise at the turn of the millennium was fast, loud, and massive, and Live in San Antonio captures the band right in the middle of that unavoidable ascent. Recorded on November 14, 1999 at the Freeman Coliseum, the show falls squarely in their Human Clay breakout period, when the band was headlining arenas and […]

For Record Store Day Black Friday 2025, Rhino digs into Phil Collins’ No Jacket Required-era with a focused, six-track reissue of 12″ers, long tucked away in CD history and finally granted a proper vinyl release. Issued in a limited run of 3,500 copies to mark the album’s 40th anniversary, this set pulls together extended mixes […]

Few bands feel as tied to their hometown mythology as The Flaming Lips, so it makes perfect sense that their full-album performance of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots would eventually circle back to Oklahoma City. Recorded on August 30, 2024 at the Zoo Amphitheater and issued as a 2LP, 45rpm neon-yellow RSD Black Friday exclusive, […]

Fleetwood Mac Live 1975 captures the band at a pivotal turning point, months after Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined and just before the group became one of the biggest acts in the world. Recorded at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ and Jorgensen Auditorium in Storrs, CT, this set documents the early chemistry of […]

Hüsker Dü: The Miracle Year documents a band on the brink of jumping from the independent label SST to signing with major label Warner. By 1985, Hüsker Dü had already started bending hardcore into something more melodic and unpredictable, but these recordings capture the moment when their songwriting and their sonic ambition fused into a […]

Originally released on CD in 1991, The Very Best of Deee-Lite arrives on vinyl for the first time, giving a focused recap of a group that treated dance music as a place to experiment. Issued as a Black Friday 2025 Record Store Day exclusive, the Rhino release compiles twenty tracks from their 1990–1994 run on […]

Surf Ride gathers together three early Art Pepper sessions from 1952, 1953, and 1954; an era when he was refining his voice and helping shape the early contours of West Coast jazz. Rather than feeling like a loose compilation, the album flows surprisingly well, offering a clear look at Pepper’s bright alto sax tone, quick […]

After three albums of synth-pop, Danz CM (formerly Computer Magic) has fully embraced the “synth” and done away with the “pop.” With LÄRM!, Danz CM pivots decisively into a more conceptual and exploratory mode. Recorded entirely with analog synths and a tape machine in her home studio, the album blends the locked-in pulse of ’70s […]

Recorded in two sessions in 1956 and released the following year on Savoy, Hank Mobley’s Jazz Message #2 stands as one of those compact but essential hard bop statements that rewards close listening far beyond its brief runtime. It captures Mobley still a few years shy of his Blue Note masterpieces like Soul Station and […]

Tom Petty’s Wildflowers has long stood as one of those rare records that seem to grow more intimate with age. Released in 1994, it captured Petty at a crossroads, stepping outside the confines of the Heartbreakers while working with producer Rick Rubin to chase a looser, more organic sound. The 30th-anniversary reissue of Wildflowers by […]

Tel Aviv–born, London-based keyboardist and producer Yoni Mayraz has built a steady reputation for blending jazz, hip-hop, and electronic sounds into something that feels both live and carefully arranged. Following his 2022 debut Dybbuk, his new album Dogs Bark Babies Cry continues that approach, drawing on the interplay between musicians rather than studio tricks. Recorded […]

When Step II arrived in 1978, Sylvester had already carved out a reputation as San Francisco’s most electrifying performer, a singer who fused church-born soul with the glitter and liberation of the disco era. Born Sylvester James Jr. in Los Angeles, he learned to sing in a Pentecostal choir before finding his way to the […]