David Bowie’s Heathen is a tremendous record. First released in 2002, it was the closest he came to mainstream success in over a decade, and his first “rock” album that was worth listening to since his work in the early 80s. It showed his amazing staying power as a creative force, and was a surprising return to form for an artist that many critics had written off (once again) by that point.

Sadly though, it’s been nearly impossible to get on vinyl since its original release. No one was buying vinyl in 2002, so when labels were generous enough to press copies of albums, they were typically in very limited, one-off runs. Hence, copies of  Heathen have become somewhat collectible over the years, going for close to $100 on auction sites.

Thankfully, that madness can come to an end, thanks to Music on Vinyl stepping up to the plate and re-issuing the record on high-quality 180 gram vinyl.

However, with that comes an entirely new madness in the form of a maddeningly rare variant.

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13 is Black Sabbath’s 19th studio album. It’s their first album with Ozzy on vocals in 35 years, and the first in 19 years to feature Geezer Butler on bass. It’s been in development in one way or another for over 10 years, and is the first album of original material from the band to be released under the Black Sabbath name in 18 years.

That’s a lot of history. Thankfully the album stands up to most of it.

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The Jesus Lizard were one of the most intense noise rock bands of the 90s; a loud, abrasive, and downright confrontational act who assaulted their audiences with concentrated blasts of distorted noise. At the center of it all was David Yow, a singer whose angry, howling vocals served as an exclamation point to the band’s already caustic and violent sound.

Now, 14 years after the group called it quits, David Yow is back with his debut solo record, Tonight You Look Like A Spider, and it’s even more in-your-face, brutal and disconcerting than anything  The Jesus Lizard ever put out.

Just not in the way you might expect.

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A great band in their own right, today Mother Love Bone is best known as the band that begot Pearl Jam. After lead singer Andrew Wood tragically died from a drug overdose in 1990, just months before their debut album Apple was set to be released, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard kept on trucking, recruiting Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready (and an revolving cast of drummers) to form Pearl Jam later that year.

After they struck it huge, Mother Love Bone’s label Mercury Records decided to cash in, and released this self-titled compilation in 1992, a grab-all that included the band’s single LP Apple, their 1989 EP Shine, and some odds and ends to fill it out. Effectively, it’s an entire discography on one album.

But strangely enough, it was  never released on vinyl, probably because its length required a 2LP set, and since it came out at a time where almost no one was buying LPs, it most likely didn’t seem cost-effective.

But how the times change. And now, some 21 years after the fact, Mother Love Bone gets its vinyl debut.

It’s just too bad that Music On Vinyl was chosen to release it.

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From 1998 to 2009, Josh Homme released at least one album every year. Between Queens of the Stone Age, The Desert Sessions, Eagles of Death Metal and Them Crooked Vultures, he proved himself to be one of the hardest working people in hard rock, right behind occasional Queens and Vultures cohort Dave Grohl. But since 2009 we’ve hardly heard from Homme at all, with no album or even a guest appearance on someone else’s work save for a track on Grohl’s Sound City soundtrack.

Now Homme is finally back, and he brought the Queens of the Stone Age to boot, with …Like Clockwork, the group’s first outing since 2007’s disappointing (at least to me anyways) Era Vulgaris. Perhaps sensing that his absence may have lessened his rock stock, Homme brought the big guns with him for the group’s return. Like Clockwork (I’m dumping the ellipses from now on) is practically a who’s who of Queens collaborators; former members Dave Grohl, Nick Oliveri, Mark Lanegan and Joey Castillo all drop in for the occasional track, as do Homme’s friends Trent Reznor, Brody Dalle (The Distillers, Homme’s wife), Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys), Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters…oh shit, I just figured out how they got their name) and Elton fucking John.

So many big names, it’s like a Blind Faith record up in here.

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Beggars Archive is a re-issue label that specializes in maintaining the back catalog of Beggars Banquet, the now-defunct indie label who helped introduce the world to groundbreaking acts like Bauhaus, The Fall, and The Gun Club. However, as beloved and well-regarded as the Beggars backstock is, not much of it exactly flies off the shelves today. Let’s be honest, most people interested in Bauhaus just want to buy a greatest hits CD that has “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” on it, and lesser acts like Gene Loves Jezebel and Felsh For Lulu are probably on the verge of being lost to the sands of time forever, save for whatever tracks they had on 80s teen comedies.

As an effort to keep many of their lesser artists, and less popular albums by their established artists, in print, Beggars Archive have started packaging together budget-priced “5 Album” box sets that include, you guessed it, five CDs from a band’s back catalog. Five CDs that, the label suggested, would be out-of-print otherwise.

The first two artists to get the “5 Album” treatment from Beggars Archive are Love & Rockets and Gary Numan. And while both are collections of great albums that many people might not purchase otherwise (and that’s a shame) I’m having  a hard time figuring out just who these box sets are for.

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Joyful Noise is one of my favorite record labels. And it’s not just because they’re home to great artists like Lou Barlow, Talk Normal, Deerhoof and Kishi Bashi (KISHI BASHI IS SO GOOD YOU GUYS), but it’s also because they seem to be one of the only labels out there having fun with the physical format.

Joyful Noise puts out cassette tapes. Not only that, they put out giant cassette tape box sets. They put out flexi-discs flip books. They sell their test pressings. They love colored vinyl, elaborate packaging and everything else that makes record collectors go gaga. Even better, they tend to do it in an affordable fashion. They’re the ideal label for the collector on a budget.

The label’s latest budget-minded limited edition release is Cause & Effect Vol. 1, a boxed collection of three split singles with an interesting concept; the A-side of each single has a historically significant solo musician, while the B-side features a modern act influenced by them.

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When Alice In Chains reformed in 2008 with new lead singer William DuVall, it was a move that shocked, and even angered many of their fans. But much of that discontent was quelled when the album by the newly reformed group, Black Gives Way To Blue, ended up being pretty good; a welcome addition to the Alice In Chains discography that updated their sound in way that wasn’t embarrassing.

Now they’re back again with The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, and while it is also a solid entry into the Alice In Chains cannon that should appease both old fans and newcomers to the legendary grunge rockers, it’s still hard to recommend simply from a technical standpoint.

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I really wanted to dislike this record.

I’m typically not a fan of “kitsch” retro music, any music that goes out of its way to sound “retro” or “vintage.” Whether it be chiptune, faux-glam, pseudo-classic rock or throwback rap, I typically find it boring. It’s an obvious, quick and easy way to find an audience that’s not very discerning, one that puts a style of music over its general quality.

And OutRun, the full-length debut by electronic artist Kavinsky, is clearly aiming for a retro feel in just about every way imaginable. He named his album after a Sega arcade game, and filled the sleeve with imagery evocative of it. He relies almost entirely on 80s-style synth and guitar licks, and the album itself is a concept record that begins in the mid-80s. There’s wearing your influences on your sleeve and then there’s tattooing them on your arm. It just all came off as so obvious.

But dammit, this is a great record.

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