Of all of Frank Zappa's discography, Thing-Fish must be his most controversial, misunderstood, overlooked album. Obviously, it is not a masterpiece, but reducing it to a compilation album with a racist plot distorts the reality. First released as a three-LP set (and reissued on two CDs), this album is the "original cast recording" of a never-produced Broadway show. Working-class joes have been mutated into potato-headed, duck-mouthed creatures by a government experiment gone wrong. They put up a Broadway musical in which reality and fiction become one for two members of the audience. The main character, Thing-Fish, is played by Ike Willis. His thick caricatured Negro accent is directly taken from Amos 'n' Andy's King Fish character. Zappa's intention was not to mock African Americans, but to ridicule the way they are depicted on Broadway, mainly a white male-dominated milieu. Harry and Rhonda, the two audience members drawn into the story by force, are played by Terry Bozzio and Dale Bozzio. Harry will realize he is gay, Rhonda will turn into a briefcase fetishist. Zappa exaggerates the yuppie trends of the mid-'80s (Harry is gay for "career purposes"; Rhonda embodies the ultra-feminist) and slips into the plot concerns about the spread of AIDS being the result of governmental scientific experiments. It's crazy, offensive, barely holding together, but it sure is entertaining. To accommodate the plot, Zappa wrote a couple of new songs and re-recorded a handful of tracks from Zoot Allures, You Are What You Is, Tinsel-Town Rebellion, and Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch with new lyrics. It is definitely for the seasoned fan (the conceptual continuity clues make an integral part of the experience), but more than rehashed material.

Although Dark Tranquillity's albums have tended to be fairly similar to one another, Projector finds the group attempting to broaden their horizons a bit, taking more chances, and more often than not, succeeding. The group in general sounds more mature, and the high level of musicianship is unimpeachable.
Dark Tranquillity is one of the original and most influential melodic death bands to emerge from Sweden in the early 1990s; along with In Flames and At the Gates, they essentially created the explosive subgenre that combined death metal's intensity, progressive, and Gothic experimentation with hooky, melodic, groove-oriented riffs and twin-guitar lead lines. Dark Tranquillity were one of the earliest and most prominent practitioners, as evidenced by their 1993 debut long-player Skydancer…

Wednesday, March 11, 2026. Kinderliedbühne Bankräuberblues … Jean Yves Astier Salut L'Ami. Salut L'Ami Jean Yves Astier · It's The Legendary …

Soft Machine were never a commercial enterprise and indeed remain unknown even to many listeners who came of age during the late '60s and early '70s, when the group was at its most visible peak. In their way, however, they were one of the more influential bands of their era, and certainly one of the most influential underground outfits. Soft Machine, one of the original British psychedelic groups, were instrumental in the birth of both progressive rock and jazz-rock.

Kenny G A crossover jazz icon, saxophonist Kenny G has enjoyed phenomenal success across the pop, jazz, and R&B charts for over three decades. Influenced by players like Stan Getz and Grover Washington, Jr., G is known for his lyrical and emotive style, a sound that has garnered a loyal fan base and made him one of the biggest-selling instrumentalists of all time. He initially broke through with 1986's Duotones, which reached the Top Ten on the pop and jazz charts and spawned the hit single "Songbird." He gained yet wider attention with 1992's Breathless, which reached number two on the Billboard 200, topped the jazz charts, and won the Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition for "Forever in Love." G has more than ten number one Billboard Jazz Albums, including 2004's At Last…The Duets, 2010's Heart and Soul, and 2015's Brazilian Nights. With 2021's New Standards, he showcased his compositional skills, writing songs inspired by his love of '50s and '60s traditional pop standards. He emphasized his soft touch with 2023's Innocence, a collection of lullabies.

This is the incredible story of Uther Pendragon, a lost psychedelic band from San Francisco whose music has remained buried until now. Formed in the Bay Area in 1966 as a teen garage group called Blue Fever, Uther Pendragon lasted from 1966 until 1978. During that time, the band went through different names and phases, as their music evolved from garage to psychedelia to hard rock, but the core of the band always remained the same: Mark Lightcap (rhythm guitar, vocals), Bruce Marelich (lead guitar, vocals), and Martin Espinosa (bass, vocals). After finding their ultimate drummer in Mike Beers, the group finally settled on the Uther Pendragon name in the early '70s. But despite being active for all that time and recording at numerous studios (including their own in Palo Alto), Uther Pendragon never released any recordings…

Pink Floyd Some bands turn into shorthand for a certain sound or style, and Pink Floyd belongs among that elite group. The very name connotes something specific: an elastic, echoing, mind-bending sound that evokes the chasms of space. Pink Floyd grounded that limitless sound with exacting explorations of mundane matters of ego, mind, memory, and heart, touching upon madness, alienation, narcissism, and society on their concept albums of the '70s. Of these concept albums, Dark Side of the Moon resonated strongest, earning new audiences year after year, decade after decade, and its longevity makes sense.

Willie Nelson Few songwriters and performers have played a vital role in post-rock & roll country music as Willie Nelson. Although he didn't become a star until the mid-'70s, he spent the 1960s writing songs that became hits for stars like Ray Price ("Night Life"), Patsy Cline ("Crazy"), Faron Young ("Hello Walls"), and Billy Walker ("Funny How Time Slips Away"), as well as releasing a series of records on Liberty and RCA that earned him a small but devoted cult following. During the early '70s, Nelson abandoned Nashville for his native Texas, setting up shop with the redneck hippies in Austin and taking control of his music on the landmark Shotgun Willie (1973) and Phases & Stages (1974). He found a kindred spirit in Waylon Jennings and, together, they spearheaded the outlaw country movement that finally made him a star by 1975. Following the crossover success of that year's Red Headed Stranger and "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," Willie became a genuine success, as recognizable in pop circles as he was to country audiences; in addition to recording, he also launched an acting career in the early '80s. Even when he was a star, he never played it safe musically.

Our Mann Flute (1966). Very groovy work from Herbie Mann - as you might guess from the image on the cover! The set's got a mod sort of 60s feel - hinted at by the title's reference to the Our Man Flint spy movies of the time - and Herbie keeps things tight and soulful throughout - serving up smoking solos over jazzy backings from Jimmy Wisner, Arif Mardin, Oliver Nelson, and Richard Wess. There's definitely a touch of the Atlantic Records soul instrumental sound at times - but we mean that in a great way, with a strong focus on the rhythms as much as the solos.
Impressions Of The Middle East (1967). In a way, this album's very similar to some of the best Verve "groovy experimental" albums from the same period - like some of Cal Tjader's Eastern/Latin work - and it features Herbie playing with a wide range of instrumentation that includes oud, zither, harp, and lots of eastern percussion…

The 15th studio long-player from the progressive rock/AOR legends - and first collection of new material in 16 years - The Prelude Implicit is the first Kansas album to feature new vocalist and keyboardist Ronnie Platt, who replaced founder Steve Walsh after the former announced his retirement in 2014. The 12-track set also marks the studio debuts of keyboard player David Manion and guitarist Zak Rizvi. That's a lot of new blood, but rest assured, The Prelude Implicit is very Kansas-y. Platt's amenable voice is custom made for melodic rock - think Tommy Shaw-meets-Paul Rodgers - and the presence of founding members Phil Ehart (drums) and Rich Williams (guitar), alongside longtime violin/guitar player David Ragsdale and bassist Billy Greer, helps to further ground the proceedings, resulting in something that sounds both familiar and forward thinking…

"Biophilia" is the seventh studio album from the unique artist from Iceland and the first since 2007's "Volta." The themes of the songs have a certain "sci-fi" feel to them, her early performances of the new material were described as "meditation on the relationship between music, nature and technology." The sound is a retreat from the daring if uneven "Volta" and is probably closest to the "Vespertine" sound, with the occasional hint of "Medulla". This album would be closest to Vespertine as a basic description, with the wintry electronic sound replaced by a more serene, slightly warmer sound. Beats are toned down just a bit. Bjork's penchant for wildness and sometimes harsh sounds is toned down even more in favor of the natural beauty of her singing voice. Here she relaxes her vocal eccentricities perhaps more than ever, relying on the natural ability of her "normal" voice.

Rush’s sixteenth studio album, Test for Echo, was released on 10 September 1996 on Anthem Records. It was the final Rush album co-produced by Peter Collins. The band supported the album with a world tour in 1996 and 1997! By December of 1996, the Test For Echo Tour was in the southern states of the US, and on the 5th of the month, Rush played at the Summit, in Houston, Texas, where they put on one of the tour’s very best shows! The whole affair was recorded and broadcast across local radio too, and the concert is now available in its entirety on this new 2CD set!

BROADCAST RECORDING FROM THE MID-1980s WHILE ON THE DISCOVERY TOUR Released in June 1984, Mike Oldfield s ninth studio album Discovery was to become one of his most celebrated. The record reached No. 1 on charts across Europe, but only gained a No. 15 placing on the British album chart. In the second half of 1984 Oldfield and his band embarked on a Europe wide tour in promotion of the album. On 8th September they performed at Teatro Tenda Bussoladomani, in Viareggio, Italy, where they played a stunning show which was recoded for FM broadcast across Italy as well as being synched live in the US, where, at that time, most folk were not generally too aware of Mike Oldfield s history. Previously unreleased this recording is now out in its entirety on this new 2CD set, allowing fans to hear one of Mike Oldfield s finest shows of the 1980s in fine audio quality.

Smokie Originally formed in Yorkshire, England in 1966, Smokie hit the British pop charts several times during the late '70s with updated psychedelic pop, influenced by the band's stay on Mickie Most's Rak Records as well as the writers of most of the band's hit material, Rak's Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. Vocalist Chris Norman, bassist Terry Utley, guitarist Alan Silson, and drummer Ron Kelly had played in the Elizabethans, but formed the band Kindness in 1970.

Number 3 Monkey is a studio album and the eponymous title single by American blues rocker Neal Black and his band The Healers, released in early 2026.