Vice Versa: Bisexuality And The Eroticism

They made one of the most essential classic rock albums of all time and - lucky us - they also laid down some live stuff. Here's how it holds up to their studio genius…

Weighing in at 19 tracks, Repertoire's 2005 collection Ayla: The Best of Flash and the Pan is the most generous compilation yet assembled of Harry Vanda and George Young's impish post-Easybeats new wave creation, Flash and the Pan. Not only is it four tracks longer than the previous best F&P comp, 1994's plainly titled Collection, but it's more carefully assembled too, boasting good liner notes from Chris Welch and eye-catching comic book artwork. If F&P didn't have any other song as immediate or memorable as "Hey St. Peter," their gloriously ridiculous new wave novelty, they did have a number of good oddities and robotic new wave pop before sinking into coldly slick anthemic pop at the end of the decade.

After the stripped-back collection I Often Dream of Trains, Robyn Hitchcock slowly formed a backing band called the Egyptians with ex-Soft Boys Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor, and keyboardist Roger Jackson over the course of the next year. Fegmania!, the Egyptians' first album, was a distinct departure from both the Soft Boys and Hitchcock's previous solo work, featuring layered, intertwining guitars and keyboards that created lush and thick sonic textures. Even with the more detailed arrangements, the songs remained twitchy and off-kilter, with melodies that usually went in willfully unpredictable directions, yet remained catchy all the while. Fegmania! was Hitchcock's most consistent work to date, featuring such highlights as the Eastern-tinged "Egyptian Cream", and the creepy "My Wife & My Dead Wife", and the relatively straightforward "The Man with the Lightbulb Head".

Justin Hinds & the Dominoes were one of the most popular vocal groups during the ska and rocksteady era, but Hinds was a country boy at heart, and with the rise of reggae he returned to his rural home. Thus the group disappeared from view for most of the first half of the '70s, but by 1975, producer L. "Jack Ruby" Lindo coaxed Hinds to Kingston, and the trio back into the studio. The musical scene had shifted dramatically during the interim, with the pusillanimous freneticism of early reggae slowing into the denser and more atmospheric sound of roots. And here, Hinds and company were right at home.

Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit will issue their new studio album The Nashville Sound on June 16 through Southeastern Records/Thirty Tigers. “White Man’s World,” the fourth single from the forthcoming LP, has been shared in advance of the record’s release. The single is one of the original compositions Isbell wrote that’s among the 10 making up The Nashville Sound. The singer-songwriter again worked with acclaimed producer Dave Cobb and further incorporated in the recording process his The 400 Unit band mates, guitarist Sadler Vaden, drummer Chad Gamble, bassist Jimbo Hart, keyboardist Derry deBorja and Isbell’s wife, fiddler/vocalist Amanda Shires.

It would have been easy to write off the Banshees after the so-so Superstition, especially given the fact that it came after two uneven and disappointing albums (including the unnecessary covers collection Through the Looking Glass) Frankly, one of punk's most consistently invigorating acts seemed to have run their course. Sure enough, The Rapture proved to be their final recording. The surprise is that it's a career highpoint. The band deny, incidentally, that they knew this was to be their last album. Quite how Siouxsie, Severin and Budgie rediscovered their chemistry is a moot point - some credited producer John Cale, who worked on four tracks - but rediscover it they did. Despite nods to the band's past in the savage "Not Forgotten," the real gems are the sunny-side-up "O, Baby" (when did Siouxsie ever sound so genuinely happy?) and an 11-minute title-track that is as dazzling as anything they have ever performed. A classic case of leaving the scene on a high note, and a fitting final chapter from one of punk's finest, and most dignified, bands.