Thanks to a roster including Cocteau Twins and Pixies, UK imprint 4AD has maintained its status as a force in independent music for more than 30 years. Author Martin Aston talks about his exhaustive new history of the label.
The Hard Way is the only studio album from American hip hop trio 213, which consisted of Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Nate Dogg. The reunion of the group first appeared as 213 in Warren G's The Return of the Regulator in the track "Yo' Sassy Ways". In 2003 Snoop Dogg, released his series of mixtapes, from which the second compilation Welcome to tha chuuch, Vol. 2 included the first version of "So Fly", which is a parody of the then chart-running hit single by Monica, So Gone.
The New Dylans were a four-man folk-rock outfit composed of songwriters and co-founders Jim Reilley and Reese Campbell, and 10,000 Maniacs' Jerome Augustyniak and John Lombardo. The band formed in Warren, PA, and put together an EP of half a dozen tunes for their first release. Thanks to fans like 10,000 Maniacs' Natalie Merchant, Michael Stipe of R.E.M., and the Village Voice's Robert Christgau, success wasn't long in coming. …