The Roar of Thunder

This Rhino U.K. 2012 budget-priced box set rounds up the prime of the Replacements: five albums, beginning with their debut Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash, continuing with the Twin/Tone landmarks Hootenanny and Let It Be, then concluding with their major-label debut Tim and their first post-Bob Stinson album Pleased to Meet Me. These aren't the expanded versions Rhino put out in the 2000s; they're just the albums, but that's enough to make this a worthwhile purchase, particularly at this price. The Replacements were an American rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1979. Initially a punk rock band, they are considered one of the pioneers of alternative rock.

Something of an anomaly on the Sub Pop roster, the Supersuckers bore a limited surface resemblance to grunge, but they were a party band at heart, donning cowboy hats and kicking out a gleefully trashy brand of throttling, rockabilly-flavored garage punk. Their lyrics were a raucous, over-the-top celebration of all the attendant evils of rock & roll – sex, booze, drugs, Satan, and whatever other vices the band could think of, all glorified with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Save for an abrupt and temporary detour into hardcore honky tonk, their approach stayed relatively consistent through the '90s, as did their quality control.

Imagine that years after your favorite television series had ended (be it Seinfeld, The Sopranos, Stath Lets Flats, Twin Peaks or any other), you learned that additional episodes had been shot during the show’s best years and were about to be released in pristine quality. Would it matter that you had already watched dozens of episodes from the same season?

Goes the song written by legendary biker-bandleader, Harry Fryed. He ain't kidding either. And twenty-five years later, the party is still going strong. The award-winning Fryed Brothers Band has been on the road, carving out a reputation as the best biker band in the world. Their energetic brand of American roots music is an irresistible stew of country, blues, swing, boogie-woogie, and good old roadhouse rock and roll.

Scottish all-female hard rock trio THE AMORETTES will release its new album, "Born To Break", on April 6 via Steamhammer/SPV. The disc was produced by Luke Morley of U.K. arena rockers THUNDER and recorded and mixed by Nick Brine (THE DARKNESS, BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN).