The 10 Best Reissues of September: Billy Gibbons, Factory Records, and the Most Important Cassette of the CD Era A Certain Ratio – It All Comes Down to This Mute Eclectic post-punkers A Certain Ratio have enjoyed a remarkably long shelf life. A staggering 45 years into their career, the disco-funk/industrial-jazz/world-dance stalwarts have outlasted pretty much everyone and everything in the influential Manchester scene from which they arose.  More from Spin: The 50 Best Albums of 1982 The 10 Best Reissues of September: Billy Gibbons, Factory Records, and the Most Important Cassette of ..read more

Fat Dog’s Chaos Mode Fat Dog are kind of a wreck. After being “tied up with something,” frontman and Fat Dog mastermind Joe Love finally beams in on his girlfriend’s phone, because he apparently has a chronic problem of losing his own. He keeps yawning and apologizes, semi-unconvincingly promising, “These are interesting questions.” Synth player Chris Hughes is on the call, too, but off-camera and issuing the caveat: “I’m having fever moments right now where I think I’m standing up but I’m lying down.” “Chris got strep throat yesterday, and before that, our drummer had space herpes or somethi ..read more

The SPIN Interview: Pearl Jam Dark Matter Producer Andrew Watt Pearl Jam – Dark Matter Monkeywrench Records/Republic Records The ninth track on Pearl Jam’s 12th studio album, Dark Matter, is called “Something Special,” and it’s by far the most controversial—as far as Subreddits and message boards are concerned. “And further proof / That you’re phenomenal / You better believe it that / You are something special,” Eddie Vedder earnestly pronounces during this ballad, in his serene and characteristically masculine burr. Engulfed in the Sturm und Drang of the rest of Dark Matter, this slightly u ..read more

Jordan Groggs, Injury Reserve Rapper, Dies at 32 RiTchie – Triple Digits [112] Self-Released On his debut solo album under the new moniker RiTchie, the Injury Reserve/By Storm rapper offers up a charcuterie board of sprawling sounds and introspective verses. Although RiTchie—formerly known as Ritchie With a T—doesn’t deliver a masterpiece on par with Injury Reserve’s final album, the experimental By the Time I Get to Phoenix, that apparently wasn’t the goal. Instead, Triple Digits [112] is a kind of appetizer for the first By Storm LP. In RiTchie’s own words, it’s “a cathartic creative relea ..read more

Jazz Legend Charles Lloyd Is Still Making Fresh Music Charles Lloyd – The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow  Blue Note The opening piece on Charles Lloyd’s first album as a leader, 60 years ago, was titled “Forest Flower.” A track at the heart of this new one is called “Late Bloom.” It’s only a minute long, Lloyd duetting with himself joyfully on alto and bass flutes. But it connects then to now with profound spirit. Emphasis on the now. This is a fresh, multi-hued bloom on an ever-growing stem—Lloyd still reaching toward the light, pursuing his lifelong quest to create something new, so ..read more

Mount Kimbie and King Krule Get Psych-Rap Makeover From Oneman and Jeremiah Jae Mount Kimbie – The Sunset Violent Warp It’s a remarkably confounding experience when nature’s beauty becomes warped by the context of personal life tragedies.  “Dumb Guitar,” the first single from Mount Kimbie’s new album, The Sunset Violent, illustrates a couple drowning in their relationship and trying to find safe, shallow water while on vacation at a fictional beach resort somewhere in China. “I watch the sunset violent,” Andrea Balency-Béarn sings calmly. “Lose it all in silence / Dig a hole in my mind ..read more

Shabaka's Flute Fantasias Shabaka – Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace Impulse! When tomorrow’s jazz historians are pondering our current era in their rent-controlled spaceships, they’ll see a state of the music divided into two schools, or two pathways to achievement.  Down one, the older model: the Great Jazz Musician as a singular improviser, spinning athletic and imaginative lines from original tunes and standards, (hopefully) apprenticing with an established bandleader before helming their own groups. Down the other, a newer, more slippery pop-like strategy: atmospheric wo ..read more

Lana Del Rey, Maggie Rogers, boygenius Team for All Things Go Festival Maggie Rogers – Don’t Forget Me Capitol Records It would have been easy for Maggie Rogers to embrace the fully-formed pop star trap that launched her career.  After her whimsical electro-pop debut “Alaska” impressed Pharrell (and subsequently went viral), she landed a major-label deal and a coveted guest spot on SNL. But following the release of her catchy but overly produced debut, 2019’s Heard It in a Past Life, Rogers pivoted to rock star mode: With her 2022 follow-up, Surrender, she sharpened her storytelling and ..read more

The Enchanting Pain of Blake Rose How far would you need to be to risk total high school humiliation? For Australian native Blake Rose, it was 3,428 miles: the distance between Perth, his hometown, and Cairns, on the other side of the continent — the first place he let anyone hear him sing in public. The first night he tried busking was, in Rose’s words, “shit.” But he loved the adrenaline rush, so gave it one more go. This time, moving his open guitar case to the city center. By the end of the night, it was stuffed with $300. Eight years later, Rose bites his lip to suppress a laugh. He has ..read more

Leyla McCalla Explores Matters of the Heart on Sun Without the Heat Leyla McCalla – Sun Without the Heat  Anti- Records Leyla McCalla, erstwhile Carolina Chocolate Drop and occasional Our Native Daughter, is on a search: “I am trying to be free … I’m trying to find me,” she sings at the start of this album’s first song, “Open the Road.” Then later, near the end of Sun Without the Heat, she delivers herself a message: “Give yourself a break.” In between, she depicts a struggle to balance life as a single mom with her mission as an artist and activist. It’s not that explicit, of course. O ..read more