Lumpy Gravy is a 1968 solo album by Frank Zappa (originally credited as Francis Vincent Zappa, and as Frank Vincent Zappa on reissues), written by Zappa and performed by a group of session players he dubbed the Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra & Chorus. Zappa conducted the orchestra but did not perform on the album. It is his third album overall (fourth released): his previous releases had been under the name of his group, the Mothers of Invention. An entirely orchestral version of the album was commissioned and briefly released, on August 7, 1967, by Capitol Records in the 4-track Stereo-Pak format only and then withdrawn due to a lawsuit from MGM Records. MGM claimed that the album violated Zappa's contract with their subsidiary, Verve Records. In 1968 it was reedited and released by Verve on May 13, 1968. The new album consisted of two musique concrète pieces that combined elements from the original orchestral performance with elements of surf music and spoken word. It was praised for its music and editing.

After the freakish hard rock of The Man Who Sold the World, David Bowie returned to singer/songwriter territory on Hunky Dory. Not only did the album boast more folky songs ("Song for Bob Dylan," "The Bewlay Brothers"), but he again flirted with Anthony Newley-esque dancehall music ("Kooks," "Fill Your Heart"), seemingly leaving heavy metal behind. As a result, Hunky Dory is a kaleidoscopic array of pop styles, tied together only by Bowie's sense of vision: a sweeping, cinematic mélange of high and low art, ambiguous sexuality, kitsch, and class. Mick Ronson's guitar is pushed to the back, leaving Rick Wakeman's cabaret piano to dominate the sound of the album.

Simon & Garfunkel The most successful folk-rock duo of the 1960s, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel crafted a series of memorable hit albums and singles featuring their choirboy harmonies, ringing acoustic and electric guitars, and Simon's acute, finely wrought songwriting. The pair always inhabited the more polished end of the folk-rock spectrum and was sometimes criticized for a certain collegiate sterility. Many also feel that Simon, as both a singer and songwriter, didn't truly blossom until he began his own hugely successful solo career in the 1970s. But the best of S&G's work can stand among Simon's best material, and the duo did progress musically over the course of their five albums, moving from basic folk-rock productions into Latin rhythms and gospel-influenced arrangements that foreshadowed Simon's eclecticism on his solo albums.Simon & Garfunkel's recording history actually predated their first mid-'60s hit by almost a decade. Childhood friends while growing up together in Forest Hills, NY, they began making records in 1957, performing (and often writing their own material) in something of a juvenile Everly Brothers style.

Wazoo is a live album by Frank Zappa, posthumously released in 2007. It is a 2-CD set consisting of a concert with "The Mothers of Invention/Hot Rats/Grand Wazoo" 20-piece big band in Boston on September 24, 1972. It is the last concert of a brief series of shows that marked Zappa's return to the stage after his forced temporary retirement from the touring scene due to the injuries he suffered from an assault at a concert in December 1971. The material showcases Zappa's endavors into jazz-based music, and many of the compositions were featured on the 1972 studio albums The Grand Wazoo and Waka/Jawaka. Rehearsals leading to these albums and concerts are documented on Joe's Domage (2004), while Imaginary Diseases (2006) presents live recordings with a stripped-down version of the big band named "Petite Wazoo." Wazoo is the third installment on the Vaulternative Records label that is dedicated to the posthumous release of complete Zappa concerts (following the releases FZ:OZ and Buffalo).

This is a bootleg album, released by Frank Zappa without enhancement, and also available as part of the Beat The Boots! #2 boxed set. It's a two-CD set that presents a nearly complete live performance by the 1970-71 "Flo & Eddie" edition of The Mothers, featuring lead vocalists Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, and recorded December 4, 1971. As such, it begins with an extended instrumental introduction leading into "Peaches En Regalia," and then there is a combination of 200 Motels material and oldies like "Call Any Vegetable." Sound quality is good, and the performance level is high.

Recorded at the Point Theatre, Dublin (1995-11-24) and from the soundboard although there is some pick up mic interference 3 × Vinyl, LP, Limited Edition, Numbered, Unofficial Release, Coloured Review: Kevin Courtney
David Bowie is dead – that was the simple message which came across last night at The Point in Dublin, as the avant-garde artist formerly known as Ziggy dismembered his own legend and strewed its bloody parts around with cold, calculated abandon.

Remastered 3CD clamshell boxed gathering together the three albums by Adrian Belew released by Atlantic Records between 1989 and 1992.

Aerosmith are considered one of America's biggest rock bands coming out of Boston in the early seventies. Much like the Rolling Stones who spin on the twin axis of guitar and singer it is the same for Aerosmith. Vocalist Steve Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry led the band from the early days through until the late seventies when despite massive commercial success the band was splintering due to a mixture of abuse, bad management and general malaise Joe Perry left the band to form his own band the Joe Perry Project. The band continued however drafting in a replacement in Jimmy Crespo. Second guitarist Brad Whitford left soon after Perry and was in turn replaced by Rick Dufay. Along with Tyler, bassist Tom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer the band recorded the album Rock In A Hard Place and continued to tour. In 1986 however moves were made to reunite the original band and Aerosmith signed a big record deal with Geffen Records. Unfortunately the band were still heavily involved in narcotics and subsequently had to enter into re hab. Once out of re hab the band enjoyed a huge crossover success and massive hit single with Run DMC who sampled the bands 1974 song Walk This Way. With this boost the band recorded their next album Permanent Vacation in 1988 which was a multi-platinum record spawning a number of hits including Dude (Looks Like A Lady). Further hit singles (Rag Doll, Love In An Elevator,

Aerosmith Specializing in raunchy, sleazy boogie and melodramatic ballads, Aerosmith are rock icons who continue to shape the sound and style of hard rock and metal. The Boston-based quintet rose to prominence in the 1970s, finding the sweet spot between the menace of the Rolling Stones and the campy, sleazy flamboyance of the New York Dolls; a lean, dirty riff-oriented boogie that was loose and swinging and as hard as a diamond. In the meantime, they developed a prototype for power ballads with "Dream On" using a piano orchestrated with strings and distorted guitars. Aerosmith's ability to pull off both ballads and rock & roll made them extremely popular during the mid-'70s, when they had a string of gold and platinum albums. By the early '80s, the group's audience had declined as the band fell prey to drug and alcohol abuse, setting the stage for one of the most remarkable comebacks in rock history. A cleaned-up Aerosmith happily adapted to an era of MTV and corporate rock without losing their cheerfully trashy essence, giving them a series of smashes in the late '80s and '90s that helped sustain their popularity into the 2020s. In 1970, the first incarnation of Aerosmith formed when vocalist Steven Tyler met guitarist Joe Perry while working at a Sunapee, New Hampshire, ice cream parlor.

Greatest Hits is a fine overview of Fleetwood Mac's hitmaking years, containing the bulk of the group's Top 40 hits of the late '70s and '80s, including "Over My Head," "Rhiannon," "Say You Love Me," "Go Your Own Way," "Dreams," "Don't Stop," "Tusk," "Sara," "Hold Me," "Gypsy," and "Little Lies." Minor hits like "Think About Me," "Love in Store," and "Seven Wonders" are missing, making room for the new songs "As Long as You Follow" (which actually became a hit) and "No Questions Asked," but overall, Greatest Hits is an excellent choice for casual listeners. [WEA released a version of Greatest Hits in 2006 that included the bonus track "Oh Diane".]

An obscure footnote of early-'70s British art rock, Khan featured guitarist Steve Hillage, keyboardist Dave Stewart, and ex-Crazy World of Arthur Brown bassist Nick Greenwood. Their sole album from 1972 was dominated by Hillage's lengthy, ambitious compositions and Stewart's organ, which owed much to the Canterbury Scene of British prog rock. The group didn't offer much to distinguish themselves from the many other British outfits exploring similar territory, and disbanded after one LP. Hillage went on to join Kevin Ayers and Gong before establishing a solo career; Stewart played with Hatfield & the North and National Health.

Alpha is the second studio album by British rock band Asia, released in 1983. It was certified platinum in the United States, eventually selling close to two million copies. Released one year before the departure of guitarist Steve Howe, Alpha was the last album with the band's original line-up until 2008's Phoenix, after the original members reunited in 2006, and the last album with Howe until Aqua in 1992. Alpha was written by the songwriting tandem of John Wetton and Geoff Downes, with the exception of "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes", which was written by Wetton alone. Alpha was recorded during the spring of 1983 at Le Studio in Morin Heights, Quebec and Manta Sound in Toronto.

I Can See Your House from Here is the seventh studio album by English progressive rock band Camel. Released in 1979, a new line up was introduced with founding members Andrew Latimer (guitar) and Andy Ward (drums) joined by bassist Colin Bass (to replace Richard Sinclair) and keyboardists Jan Schelhaas (who joined in 1978 for the Breathless tour) and Kit Watkins (ex-Happy The Man) who replaced Dave Sinclair. At one point, the album was going to be called Endangered Species.

Modest Mouse create a sonic world that balances jagged chaos with haunting beauty, making them one of the most influential indie rock bands of the last 30 years. ‘An Eraser And A Maze’ is the first new studio album from the band since 2021’s ‘The Golden Casket’. A physics theory says past, present and future coexist - and that’s the best lens for ‘An Eraser And A Maze’, which feels like every era of Modest Mouse happening at once. Guided by Isaac Brock’s instinct-first process, the album is both familiar and alien, warm and cold. It stretches across the band’s sonic history, from propulsive classics to stripped, raw moments, while carrying an undercurrent of mortality and loss that refuses easy optimism.

Bird And Diz is a spectacularly explosive, historically monumental, and masterfully synchronized bebop studio masterpiece led by the absolute twin titans and founding vanguard monarchs of modern jazz history, alto saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, reissued and digitally restored on compact disc in 1986 by Norman Granz’s premier archival preservation imprint Verve Records. Spanning over 40 minutes of breathtakingly intense, lightning-fast instrumental interactions across 13 total tracks—combining definitive master takes with priceless, insightful alternate session calculations—this high-fidelity restoration serves as an absolute pinnacle monument in mid-century African-American classical art archaeology. Originally recorded in New York City on June 6, 1950, this session captures the final historical studio reunion of Parker and Gillespie, executing the fierce, forward-thinking sonic blueprint they developed in the 1940s that shattered the big-band swing paradigm and established the complex melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic vocabulary of modern jazz.