Rock That Aisle Again

For anyone in their mid-teens in the mid-5Os, and into music, it had to be rock'n'roll - American rock'n roll. There was no British equivalent to the sound. In the UK, it was Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, The Platters, Alan Freed, Radio Luxembourg, Voice Of America. If the right people get to know about this and hear the quality, this will sell and sell.

Pablo Honey in no way was adequate preparation for its epic, sprawling follow-up, The Bends. Building from the sweeping, three-guitar attackRadiohead that punctuated the best moments of Pablo Honey, Radiohead create a grand and forceful sound that nevertheless resonates with anguish and despair – it's cerebral anthemic rock. Occasionally, the album displays its influences, whether it's U2, Pink Floyd, R.E.M., or the Pixies, but Radiohead turn clichés inside out, making each song sound bracingly fresh. Thom Yorke's tortured lyrics give the album a melancholy undercurrent, as does the surging, textured music. But what makes The Bends so remarkable is that it marries such ambitious, and often challenging, instrumental soundscapes to songs that are at their cores hauntingly melodic and accessible. It makes the record compelling upon first listen, but it reveals new details with each listen, and soon it becomes apparent that with The Bends, Radiohead have reinvented anthemic rock.

The Book Of Knots has had the pleasure of collaborating with some of the worlds most talented musicians, including Tom Waits, Mike Patton, David Thomas, Blixa Bargeld, Jon Langford, and Carla Bozulich. Founding members Matthias Bossi (Skeleton Key, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum), Joel Hamilton (producer/engineer for BlakRoc, Pretty Lights), Carla Kihlstedt (Tin Hat Trio, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum) and Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu, Frank Black, Bob Mould) forge a sound both epic and intimate, empowering and devastating. Cinematic, symphonic landscapes give way to crumbling acoustic chamber ballads. Broken guitars and beautifully warped orchestras describe the ungraceful demise of boats, blast furnaces and bloated industries. Accounts of the failed adventures of tragic would-be heroes are given voice in the band's two previous critically-acclaimed releases. Their newest album serves as the final chapter in the bands "By Sea, By Land, By Air" trilogy.

Another serious project in vein of Time Life Music, the "24 Golden Hits" is a compilation series of the world famous hits, released on CD circa 1987-1988. Here is the complete series packed into five boxes and each box was re-released separately. Each Volume-set contains the five discs and titled as "120 Golden Oldies". 600 "Golden" songs total and over than one day of the continuous listening!

Helmut Lotti is a Belgian tenor and singer-songwriter. Lotti performs in several styles and languages. Once an Elvis impersonator, he has sung African and Latino and Jewish music hit records, and he crossed over into classical music in the 1990s. The Golden Collection is a unique music monument. A deluxe box packaging with 34 discs full of audio and video music. Helmut Lotti's complete catalog available as one collection for the very first time. This makes “The Golden Collection” the ideal gift this year.

In his 2015 memoir Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink, Elvis Costello recalled an early gig at the British Legion Hall "on the posh side of Birkenhead Park" in Birkenhead, Merseyside. "I can't say my set was a triumph," he wrote. "I went off to a round of feeble applause from a handful of pensioners supping mild beer and a smattering of teenagers in army petticoats drinking cider. However, once I found a singing partner in Allan Mayes, my performances became a little more controlled and his superior musicianship and more melodious voice balanced by chaotic approach." Initially with Alan Brown on bass and then as a duo, Costello (then known by his birth name of Declan MacManus) and Mayes performed together as Rusty from January 1972 through June 1973.