Everclear, one of the leading alternative rock bands to emerge from the ’90s led by vocalist, guitarist and founder Art Alexakis, has officially released the Sparkle and Fade 30th Anniversary Remastered Deluxe Edition.
The new, expanded edition of Everclear’s platinum-selling, major-label debut album, Sparkle and Fade, features all 14 original tracks, remastered by Brad Blackwood, plus bonus content pulled from the vault, featuring unreleased tracks, alternate versions of fan favorites, and original demos, as well as cover songs that were recorded around the same time as the original Sparkle and Fade sessions.
Sparkle and Fade, which had a massive impact in 1995 with its chart-topping hit Santa Monica…
Category: alternative rock
Despite all your rage, you are still just a reader on a post about a new expansion of one of The Smashing Pumpkins’ biggest albums. The iconoclastic band will reissue Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness this fall for its 30th anniversary, pairing the original, sprawling album with a new double album of unreleased live performances on the band’s ensuing tour in support of the record.
Conceived from the outset as a double album – frontman Billy Corgan described the 2CD set as “The Wall for Generation X” – Mellon Collie represents part of the band’s most prolific era and commercial apex. Working with the best-known line-up of the group (guitarist James Iha, bassist D’arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlain) plus producers Flood and Alan Moulder…
…include a new remastered version of the original album, a disc of rarities and a CD featuring a live show from that year.
One in the winter of 1983, Paul Westerberg – singer, guitarist and songwriting leader of Minneapolis trouble boys The Replacements – phoned manager Peter Jesperson with hot news: “I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written, and we need to record it right away.” Jesperson said there was no rush; the band’s second album, Hootenanny, had just gone to the pressing plant.
Jesperson soon heard why Westerberg was so excited. During a gig at a local club, the singer, drummer Chris Mars, lead guitarist Bob Stinson and Bob’s teenage brother, bassist Tommy Stinson, lit into “a bouncy tune I didn’t…
They Are Gutting a Body of Water originally began as the solo project of Doug Dulgarian, who established a digitally enhanced version of shoegaze which frequently detoured into electronic noise interludes and drum’n’bass breakbeats. Eventually, he embraced a full-band format, and became known for shows where the musicians face each other on the floor instead of playing on-stage. LOTTO is the group’s attempt to create a raw, live-to-tape album rather than something engineered and assembled on a computer. The record’s dark, crushing shoegaze songs feature cryptic, fragmented lyrics which offer perspectives on an uncertain life that feels like it’s on the brink of disaster. Many of the songs seem to address drug addiction and other coping…
The Numero Group kicked off their 200 line of titles in 2017 with Savage Young Dü, an unprecedented archival dive into the early works of Minneapolis punk trio Hüsker Dü. Fifty entries later in that chapter of the label’s discography, Numero has a new Dü title that takes a special look at what may be their most pivotal year as a band.
1985: The Miracle Year is a 2CD that chronicles the group’s biggest gambles yet, through the filter of their blistering live shows. Kicking off with a powerful 23-song local set at First Avenue not even a month into that year and following through with another 20 tracks recorded around the globe over the next nine months, The Miracle Year offers an alternate path through the year that saw the group issue third and fourth albums…
The Smashing Pumpkins are revisiting the material that initially marked their final bow with a sprawling, unusual box set.
…a new box set, Machina (Aranea Alba Editio), offer a remixed and resequenced, 48-track quintuple-album drawing from Machina, its sequel Machina II/The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music and assorted B-sides, plus a further three LPs of 32 rarities and outtakes, with more than 30 tracks entirely unreleased.
It’s an unusual release plan for an unusual series of albums, which brought the Smashing Pumpkins back to their roots and then closed the book on them entirely a quarter-century ago. Machina/The Machines of God was a back-to-basics, grunge-adjacent guitar album that…
Witch Fever weave doom, punk, goth and noise into the fabric of their second album, FEVEREATEN. Alongside Chris W. Ryan’s production, the four-piece band sounds balanced and unified. Continuing on from their debut, Congregation, FEVEREATEN unpacks religious (and other) trauma through allegory and personal narrative.
Amy Walpole’s raw, nearly feral vocals anchor the album in its emotional core. At the centre of it all is a steady, driving heartbeat: great for screaming into the void about our disenfranchisement. The album builds a familiar sense of otherness, underwritten by experiences coming of age – and now living as adults – under authoritarianism. At the midway point, SAFE features a haunting and ethereal cello theme.
“The beep test” is probably a familiar and horror-inducing term to anyone who’s taken a gym class at some point in the last few decades. For those unfamiliar: The whole class lines up against a wall and runs 20 meters in the time between two beeps sounding. The beeps get closer and closer together until you’re frantically running back and forward, fearing that you may collapse at any minute. This mental image is appropriate to accompany Irish band God Alone.’s third album, The Beep Test. That’s not necessarily because of the speed or intensity of the music — although there’s plenty of that in places — but rather how relentlessly it throws a listener into new and unexpected vibes with no chance for a breather.
The record starts in a fairly conventional, if…
Shiner have a sound, but it’s not easy to classify. You can get close by mentioning their ’90s peers, such as Jawbox, who also balanced melody, heaviness, and precision.
Still, nothing ever feels complete – phrases like “heavy shoegaze” or “heavy alternative” seem apt, but don’t fully capture it. BELIEVEYOUME is a great place to start if you are new to the band. If you are a longtime fan, this is the follow-up to the masterful The Egg you have been waiting for. It’s Shiner at the peak of their powers, delivering a juiced-up version of the sound that has had fans enthralled for nearly three decades.
BELIEVEYOUME is their first release since 2020’s Shadenfreude, which marked their return after a nearly 20-year absence.
From playing shows alongside Amyl & the Sniffers and Sleater-Kinney, through to being signed by Jack White’s Third Man Records, it’s clear that Austin, Texas, quartet Die Spitz have found themselves in the right circles since their formation back in 2022. And while their frenzied live reputation certainly precedes them, it’s with their debut Something to Consume, that their vision comes into sharp relief. Far from scrappy or rough-around-the-edges, ‘Throw Yourself to the Sword’ is a punishing offering – landing closer sonically to metal titans Pantera and Black Sabbath – while ‘Sound to No One’ is a sludgy but mesmeric offering that could suit Deftones. Elsewhere, the bolshy strut of ‘Down On It’ brings a playful feel to proceedings before their hazy closer ‘a strange…
How in the world did composer/filmmaker Chris Hunt and Korn’s James “Munky” Shaffer wander into ACL territory? The answer is simple: they combined forces and honed their sound. Exinfinite has all the power of cinema, plus the energy of rock. Though the album is mostly instrumental, it is enhanced by a trio of guest vocalists, most notably FKA Twigs, making it a true crossover threat.
We’re impressed that the first two singles and videos are not the vocal tracks; Venera wants their second album to be received on its own merits. “Tear” begins with human whisper and robotic buzz, dissolving into a sci-fi drone. Darker tones soon enter, along with cybernetic beats and FLA-like guitars, making the track a slow-tempo industrial burner. “Asteroxylon” cements…
Uncoiling and recoiling around an ever-shifting rhythmic core, listening to Guck feels like attending a show where you’re the sole audience member. The band’s exquisite chemistry is matched only by their sonic density. Through synths, drums, bass, guitars, and vocals, the band seems to chart the entire history of noise rock. From the junkyard space punk of Pere Ubu, MX80 Sound, and Chrome to the squealing intensity of sasscore, and crushing grooves of post-hardcore. Yet tracing the forebearers only hints at glints of what Guck are doing. Glimpses of recognisable sights are swallowed into the ever-engulfing mass of the band’s whirring hurricane. Oh yes, listening to Guck makes you feel like you’re at a one-man show. Their synth-heavy post-whatever…
Expanded reissue of the 1988 EP Hammer now includes a newly compiled “Echo” side of lost recordings. Out on vinyl, CD and digital with liner notes by Tom Cheek, and rare archival material. In 1988, Athens, Georgia’s Kilkenny Cats released Hammer, a fierce and atmospheric EP that captured the moody heart of the late-’80s Southern underground. More than three decades later, this cult classic returns in expanded form as Hammer + Echo. Remastered and featuring unreleased recordings, unseen photos, and liner notes that reframe the story of a band that never quite fit the mold. Out September on Propeller Sound Recordings, Hammer + Echo includes the original six-track Hammer EP one side, remastered from the original tapes, and a newly assembled…
The list of releases for Record Store Day 2025 includes a standout item: a new Rage Against the Machine concert album titled Live On Tour 1993. The 2-LP vinyl release compiles 10 “completely untouched and unmixed live recordings” from various cities on RATM’s 1993 tour. In addition to three sides of music, the double vinyl includes one side with an artistic etching.
Among the 10 live tracks are such classics as “Bombtrack” (Washington, D.C.), “Killing in the Name” (Orlando), “Bullet in the Head” (Paris), and “Know Your Enemy” (Toronto).
All told, the collection includes live performances of all 10 songs on Rage Against the Machine’s 1992 self-titled debut album. It’s limited to 15,000 copies and will initially only be…
Not to be confused with the Scottish twee pop outfit with the same name, this Camera Obscura hailed from San Diego and augmented their hardcore influences and propulsive rhythms with synthesizers and other electronics.
The band formed in the late ’90s and featured keyboardist Michelle Maskovich, guitarist Duane Pitre, drummer William Lamb, and vocalist Russell White. They released their debut 7″, Writing Kodak/We Talked MIDI, in 1998 and followed it up with touring, recording, and their full-length debut, To Change the Shape of an Envelope, in 2000.
The group disbanded, and White and Maskovich went on to form Champagne Kiss, who released their self-titled debut album on Troubleman Records later that year.
Live in Europe 1992 is a 13 LP boxset archival release by the The Smashing Pumpkins released exclusively on Madame ZuZu’s featuring 90 live songs over 8 hours of soundboard recordings from 9 different shows during the 1992 European tour.
The boxset includes never before seen photos taken during the tour from Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin’s personal archives, as well as live concert photos by Paul Baines. Also, a personal essay from Billy Corgan on the highs and low of the tour with never before shared insights and reflections.
Featuring soundboard recordings from 9 different shows from Billy Corgan’s personal audio archive – all mastered by the band’s longtime friend and legend Howie Weinberg.
Nine Inch Nails returns with over 70 minutes of new music for the motion picture Tron: Ares, the first soundtrack / score work from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross that will live under the Nine Inch Nails moniker; consisting of all original music, complete at 24 tracks.
Reznor and Ross bring their Grammy and Oscar-winning sonic vision to the Grid, crafting a soundtrack that hums with menace, melancholy, and momentum. More than an album, its architecture in sound: pulsating synths, distorted textures, and haunting melodies that rewire the Tron universe from the inside out. It is the collision of analog soul and digital dread – a score that doesn’t just accompany the film, it possesses it. This release marks the first official film…
Tunic’s A Harmony of Loss Has Been Sung is a meatgrinder of syncopated distortion, clarity of grief, unfiltered lyrics, raw textured instruments, and hard hitting repetition. It’s no wonder this album of disparate sensations provides a release, a mode of muted catharsis as the sound they produce scratches at the air, grasping for it.
The composition of the record is complex, but straightforward, a dry sound that’s a rich and a refreshing taste in how the band dictates the empty spaces of sound.
Spacing is essential in this record which is noticeably different from their previous albums, Wrong Dream (2023), Quitter (2021), and Exhaling (2021). These previous albums felt like a desire to fill the space of sounds, unrelenting,…
Some bands would call this an EP. That would be stupid, of course, but a more sheepish bunch might use the short tracklist as a hedge. Shallowater, on the other hand, are rightly presenting these six songs as their next grand statement.
Not that God’s Gonna Give You a Million Dollars is especially short. This trio’s music sprawls like its West Texas homeland, “where the flowers grow brittle.” Each song is a desolate landscape, parched and ready to be set ablaze when lightning inevitably flashes across the horizon. Whereas Shallowater’s fellow Texans and sometimes tour-mates Teethe play a lush version of slowcore bursting with color and life, you can practically see the tumbleweeds drifting through this album.
Despite the Texas of it all, there’s a lot of…
Street Eaters is back with a drum-pummeling, punk shouting EP, the duo of Megan March (kit) and John No (bass) augmented for Opaque with a guitar player, one Joan Toledo, who used to edit Maximum Rocknroll. Singing drummer bands have a certain brute force generally, and March’s outfit is no exception. She shouts and rants and puts forth anthemic melodies while hitting the skins with whole body momentum.
This seven-song release hitches body-shocking energy to swaggering tunes, starting strong with “Tempers.” This opening cut begins in a group sung chant of “Wait and wait it takes too long,” then erupts in blistering riffery. The songs on this EP were inspired, we’re told, by the birth of March’s first child, and yeah, those…
An utterly abysmal set of reverb drenched mediocre songs. Those R.E.M. covers are so catastrophically tone-deaf it’s a wonder Michael…