Review: 'Blazing Saddles Meets Young Frankenstein'

Mel Brooks is widely and rightfully considered to be one of the giants of comedy cinema, although that reputation mostly hinges on just a few movies. Sure, a dedicated few may thump tubs for High Anxiety, History of the World Part 1, or even Space Balls, but if we're being honest, Brooks's screen rep is really down to The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein. Amazingly, the latter two films came out in the same year. Only Roxy Music used 1974 as well as Mel Brooks did. 

Review: Expanded Vinyl Reissue of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' 'Long After Dark'

Because their videos were staples in the early days of MTV, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers always had a vague new-wave whiff, even though they were really sixties-rock revivalists in the jangly Byrds/Love mode. They actually embraced some specific semblance of new-waveyness when experimenting with synthesizers on their first post-MTV LP, Long After Dark. The video for the synth-laced "You Got Lucky' even had a sort of futuristic Mad Max-on-a-budget feel. However, the foundation of the track was pure Arthur Lee-toughness, and that barely compromised rock and roll attitude flushed through the rest of the album, too. 

Review: 'Star Trek-The Illustrated Oral History: The Original Cast'

Star Trek-The Illustrated Oral History: The Original Cast is not the first oral history of that boldly going sci-fi archetype, but it's unique in that all of its quotes were pulled from a single source—Titan's long-running Star Trek Magazine— and that "illustrated" bit. This is a beautiful little book, illustrated with color photos of what could be TV's most splendidly vivid series. 

Review: Vinyl Reissues of Pete Townshend's 'Iron Man: The Musical' and 'Psychoderelict (Music Only)'

After The Who broke up, Pete Townshend seemed to want to distance himself from his old band's roiling and raw hard rock as much as possible, so he issued a series of slick LP musicals that ranged from the personal to the surprisingly impersonal. First up was a project of the former stripe, as White City was largely inspired by Townshend's experiences working alongside his then-wife in a women's shelter, and though it revealed its 1985 origins with its synthesizers and glossy production, there was still some bite in tracks like "Give Blood" and "Secondhand Love". With its themes of anger, shame, and fame, White City was nearly as personal a record as either of Townshend's two more Who-like ones that preceded it.

Review: 'The Name of the Band Is R.E.M.'

Unlikely as it was, the mysterious and insular R.E.M. became the biggest college rock band of the eighties, and one of the nineties' biggest bands of any stripe, so they've naturally been the topic of their share of biographies. Yet there's is a tough story to tell with the usual rock and roll salaciousness that pins cynical eyes to pages. Their story is suspiciously lacking in drug-crazed binges, intraband hair-pulling bouts, humiliating flops, and groupie abuse. R.E.M. were basically four nice guys who liked each other. One shouting match during the making of Monster and cutting Peter Holsapple out of the lucrative co-writing credits for "Low" was probably the most Mick-and-Keith things they ever did. Sure, Peter Buck did have that one well-publicized fit of air rage, but mostly he settled for strolling around town in his PJs and robe while tugging on a tallboy to get his ya-yas out.

Review: Vinyl Reissue of The dB's 'Repercussion'

The dB's got lumped in with the college rockers, but had they been around fifteen years earlier, they would have been a perfectly commercial pop band...albeit one who's best-known song tells the tale of a poor schlub who decides to end it all after his girlfriend not only dumps him but steals all his shit... well, all of it except for his amplifier.

Review: 'Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision' Vinyl Box Set

After recording their masterpiece, 1968's Electric Ladyland, the Jimi Hendrix Experience began to fall apart. Noel Redding's departure hardly halted Hendrix from getting right back to work though. He set up shop in his newly constructed Electric Lady Studios in NYC with Mitch Mitchell and new bassist/old friend Billy Cox to work on a funkier, less trippy batch of songs, including fierce items like "Dolly Dagger", "Ezy Rider", and "Room Full of Mirrors" and gorgeous ones like "Angel" and "Drifting". The bulk of the sessions stretched from late 1969 through August 1970. 

Review: 'Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush [Omnibus Remastered edition]'

Kate Bush seems to reveal so much of herself in her songs despite being more of a storyteller than a self-dissecting singer-songwriter. So much of her own intense connections to family, sex, love, and nature bleed through her tales of soldiers, ship-wreck survivors, ghosts, monsters, talking houses, and amorous computers. In reality, Kate Bush is an extremely private person, but the personal air of her music prompts a great deal of curiosity, empathy, and speculation in critics and fans alike.

Review: 'David Bowie: Rock 'N' Roll Chameleon'

Few rock stars are as suited to the kinds of coffee table bio cum discography divethat Quarto publishes on a semi-regular basis as David Bowie. He had a huge number of records and a huge number of looks. Few rock writers are as suited to penning this kind of book as Martin Popoff, who always brings the personality and humor sadly lacking in most boilerplate tomes of this type. 

Review: Vinyl Reissue of 3 Motown Albums

This month Elemental Music continues its Motown vinyl reissue campaign it began back in May by releasing three pivotal albums from three pivotal artists. The label's most enduring male vocal group makes their debut. The label's superstar female vocal group undergo an image change. The label's pioneer innovator starts winding down his original pop hitmaker phase and gets his first number one pop hit.