Guitar School

Wedding the experimental free-folk of "New Weird America" to the more conventionally song-focused SF freak-folk movement, Six Organs of Admittance mastermind Ben Chasny comes into his own on this, his first-ever studio-recorded LP. Richly textured and three-dimensional, School of the Flower straddles the line between moody ambient madness and vintage sunlit psych-folk.

Georgia-based guitarist, singer, and songwriter Beverly "Guitar" Watkins is one part soul singer, one part rockin' roadhouse mama, and one part gifted songwriter. She's also been chronically under-recorded for a woman with her résumé: she spent the early '60s playing rhythm guitar with Piano Red & the Interns. She recorded with Piano Red from 1959 until the mid-'60s, and can be heard on his popular singles "Doctor Feelgood" and "Right String But the Wrong Yo Yo." Watkins learned guitar and got her earliest musical sensibilities from several of her aunts, who had a quartet named the Hayes Family.

Beverly "Guitar" Watkins, best known for performing with Piano Red in his outfit Doctor Feelgood and the Interns during the early '60s, returns to active recording with Back in Business, a collection of tracks that finds her comfortably covering electric blues, R&B, and old-fashioned rock & roll. Subtle gospel and jazz shadings appear from time to time, but Watkins generally concentrates on rocking the house, revisiting Piano Red-era classics (including "Right String but the Wrong Yo-Yo"), and introducing some eminently likable new compositions. All in all, a successful return.

School's Out is the fifth studio album by Alice Cooper, released in 1972. The album's title track has remained a staple song in Alice Cooper's live setlist and receives regular airplay on many "Classic Rock" radio stations. The original album cover (designed by Craig Braun) had the sleeve opening in the manner of an old school desk. There were two versions of the cover, the first did not list the song titles on the back and the second did list the songs. The vinyl record inside was wrapped in a pair of girl's panties. The panties came in four different colors (white, pink, yellow, & blue). The actual desk is on display in the Hard Rock Cafe in Berlin.