Chris Olsen

If you want the true measure of a band, listen to them playing live. Without the smoke and mirrors of the studio, some artists flourish while others fold. Now in 2015, Songs From The Road, captures a dynamite set from a band that has made it their business to blow off the roof. “We get up onstage and we turn it on,” says Spin Doctors vocalist Chris Barron. “We play our hearts out.” Stop the man on the street and he might tell you the Spin Doctors are the zillion-selling legends behind hits like Two Princes and Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong. Ask a longer-term, harder-core fan, though, and they’ll remind you that Chris Barron, Aaron Comess (drums), Eric Schenkman (guitar) and Mark White (bass) came up playing for their lives on the sharp-end of the New York blues circuit. “Those blues clubs were our bread and butter in the late-’80s,” says Aaron, “and people loved that we stretched out and jammed out.”

Rammstein were one of the first bands to emerge within the Neue Deutsche Härte genre, with their debut album leading the music press to coin the term, and their style of music has generally had a positive reception from music critics. Commercially, the band have been very successful, earning many No. 1 albums as well as gold and platinum certifications in countries around the world. Their grand live performances, which often feature pyrotechnics, have played a part in their popularity growth. Despite success, the band have been subject to some controversies, with their overall image having been subject to criticism; for instance, the song "Ich tu dir weh" forced its parent album Liebe ist für alle da to be re-released in Germany with the song removed due to its graphic lyrics about sex.

Germany's biggest rock export, Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein burst onto the international radar in the late '90s with their breakthrough sophomore set, 1997's Sehnsucht, and its accompanying hit single "Du Hast." With their aggressive blend of heavy metal riffs, dramatic orchestration, and synth-forward electronic production, the band quickly evolved from a sonic novelty into a reliably hard-hitting machine that never shied away from controversy. Following the chart-topping success of 2001's Mutter, Rammstein became a fixture at the top of the German charts in a decades-long career that secured a devoted international fan base, multiple platinum-certified albums, and no less than a dozen number one singles. Despite language barriers, they even maintained a consistent chart presence in the U.K. and U.S.

Today, Jagjaguwar invites listeners to Join The Ritual, as the record label begins the third quarter of its 25th Anniversary through a celebration of those who have guided its history. With a nod to the company's roots in Dungeons & Dragons, Join The Ritual is a new album out September 24th that pays homage to the artists and fellow independent titans like Drag City, K Records, Too Pure, Touch & Go and more who originally inspired Jagjaguwar to take a seat at the table and enter the wild, dark magic ritual of music.

Anew David Sylvian box set that focuses on his post-Virgin output will be released in August. samadhisound 2003–2014 Do You Know Me Now? contains all of David Sylvian’s solo albums issued between 2003 and 2014, plus the albums recorded with Nine Horses, Jan Bang & Erik Honoré and Franz Wright & Christian Fennesz. The set also contains an exclusive compilation CD, Do You Know Me Now? featuring non-album tracks recorded with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Nine Horses.