Moving from Blade Runner lullabies to upbeat electroclash lounge, 6 is sort of a Soft Cell shimmer over a Casio pop aesthetic, but with way more colors than basic black.

My best bets on another great year for music, old and new. (Never mind the cranks, here’s the good stuff as ever.) Hope this little list inspires you to find, or give a second look to, a few cool releases you might miss otherwise that you end up truly loving.

Good news! Big Takeover #80 Spring 2017 issue with The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde on the cover has been completed and is shipping! It’s the perfect time for Big Takeover magazine subscriptions and back issues (like the big enchilada, complete set 1980-2017)! Or six children’s sizes for our T-Shirts (to go with several Mens’ and Womens’ sizes) in three colors, as well as our Big Takeover Beer Cozies and (signed if you like) Color 30th Anniversary Festival Posters!

49 and a half years after the original line-up split, all four surviving original members (R.I.P. guitarist Paul Atkinson), Colin Blunstone lead vocals, Rod Argent keyboards/vocals, Chris White bass/vocals, and Hugh Grundy on drums, have begun a rare farewell U.S. tour together; so rare, it’s only the second time they’ve done it—and the first time was 2015! It’s even more rare when you consider the original line-up only came over once in its young, commercial peak. Best of all, from now until April 29, they are once again performing the high water mark of their existence, 1968’s extraordinary, justly lionized, soft-psych masterpiece Odessey & Oracle start to finish to mark the 50th anniversary of its recording.

Good news! Big Takeover #79 Fall 2016 issue with Lush on the cover is out on the stands! The magazine makes a perfect gift year-round: Big Takeover magazine subscriptions and back issues (like the big enchilada, complete set 1980-2016)! Plus six children’s sizes for our T-Shirts (to go with several Men’s and Women’s sizes) in three colors, as well as our Big Takeover Beer Cozies, buttons, and (signed if you like) Color 30th Anniversary Festival Posters! What a way to say “Happy New Year!”

The best bets on another great year for music, old and new. (Never mind the cranks, here’s the good stuff as ever.)

Good news! Big Takeover #78 Spring 2016 issue with Savages on the cover is out on the stands!

Once again the big news is that Big Takeover #78 Spring 2016 issue was completed in Brooklyn, NY and Oakland, CA this month! Pre-order – Subscribe – Renew – Great gifts! Click through for a quick description of its contents. And IMPORTANT, subscribers, please update your address if you’ve moved!

Moodiness/magnificence personified, again.

An exclusive first taste of Jeff’s solo debut!

The best bets on another great year for music, old and new. (Never mind the cranks, here’s the good stuff as ever.)

In fact, given this late date, I/we can send the first issue(s) (or package) via special 2-day priority mail, the extra postage costs on us, for any order $20 or over in order to get there before the 25th! Or a postcard if you want to start your friends or relatives with the next issue due in the spring.

Good news! Big Takeover #77 Fall 2015 issue with Ride on the cover is out on the stands! And there’s still time for the perfect holiday gift: Big Takeover magazine subscriptions and back issues (like the big enchilada, complete set 1980-2015)! Plus six children’s sizes for our T-Shirts (to go with several Mens’ and Womens’ sizes) in three colors, as well as our Big Takeover Beer Cozies and (signed if you like) Color 30th Anniversary Festival Posters! What a way to say “Happy Holidays!”

Once again the big news is that Big Takeover #77 Fall 2015 issue was completed in Brooklyn, NY and Oakland, CA this month! Pre-order – Subscribe – Renew – Great gifts! Click through for a quick description of its contents. And IMPORTANT, subscribers, please update your address if you’ve moved!

Good news! Big Takeover #76 (Special 35th Anniversary) Spring 2015 issue with Belle and Sebastian on the cover is out on the stands! We only come out twice a year, every Spring and Fall, so you don’t want to miss one of our jam-packed 150-page issues! Click through for full details on ordering.

After seven years away, Sweden’s Moonbabies are back and better than ever!

Those who’ve enjoyed my weekly “Big Takeover” show on Breakthruradio.com the last six-and-a-half years, and have missed it the last month—or would just like to hear a weekly companion to Big Takeover magazine’s coverage—will be glad to know I will be resuming it in the same weekly 90-minute+, format, only listener-supported from now on, at our new home on Realpunkradio.com, starting this Monday, January 26!

Four truly exciting yet often somewhat dreamy-sounding up and comers we love! Click through to watch music videos by all four, and read my reviews of their most recent releases!

Good news! Big Takeover #75 Fall 2014 issue with The Raveonettes on the cover is out on the stands! And there’s still time for the perfect holiday gift: Big Takeover magazine subscriptions and back issues (like the big enchilada, complete set 1980-2014)! Plus six children’s sizes for our T-Shirts (to go with several Mens’ and Womens’ sizes) in three colors, as well as our Big Takeover Accessories (Beer Cozies, Buttons, and Magnets!) and (signed if you like) Color 30th Anniversary Festival Posters! What a way to say “Happy Holidays!”

It will begin shipping any day now, so you should see it quite soon! Click through for details!

Also airing this week: Pale Lights, Jet Black (new), History of Apple Pie (new), Sloan (new), Paul Collins (new), Byrds, Pretty Things, Kinks, Zombies, Roddy Woomble & Band (new, live), Luluc, (new), Roddy Frame, and Tim Hardin.

Also airing this week: Valery Trails, Cheatahs, Proper Ornaments, Wesley Wolfe, Moose, Idaho, Talk Talk, Luff, Bob Mould, Replacements, Suicide Commandos, Suburbs, Loud Fast Rules, and Rogue Wave

[Updated, corrected for correct time:] It’s tomorrow, Friday, August 15, 5-8 PM Eastern Standard Time, 3-6 PM Mountain time on Bozeman, MT’s KGLT, and can be streamed at kglt.net. Thanks to KGLT legend Ron Sanchez!

Also on this week’s show: Omi Palone, The Muffs (new), The Reducers, Alvvays, Beverly, Penetration, The Specials, Madness, The Ruts, Flower (live Rabid Session), The KVB, Clustersun, Savage Republic (new), and The Sensible Grey Cells. Cool!

Also on this week’s show: La Sera, Drive By Truckers, George Jones, Martin Carr (new), The Muffs (new), Cheatahs, The War on Drugs, Sad Lovers and Giants, Conor Oberst, The Clean, David Kilgour & the Heavy Eights (new), Slowdive, and Scud Mountain Boys

Also on this week’s show: Bob Mould (new), Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Dum Dum Girls, SPC ECO, Elbow, Teenage Fanclub, Pale Lights, Prophet Hens, Rock City (Big Star), Flower, Chino, Bevis Frond, and Mountain Man (live)

Good news! Big Takeover #74 Spring/Summer 2014 issue with Dum Dum Girls on the cover is out on the stands! And there’s still time for the perfect gift: Big Takeover magazine subscriptions and back issues!

“I remember the hardships and the frustrations bitterly. I wasn’t mourning Maggie Thatcher’s loss greatly!”

With the July 11 passing of drummer Tommy Ramone from bile duct cancer, the original quartet that launched 1,000 others are consigned to memory, film, and record.

Also on this week’s show: Cocoanut Groove, Slowness (new), The Rifles, Kaleidescope (U.K.), Allah-Las, Math and Physics Club, Maximo Park, The Steinbecks, Shoes, The Ramones, Beverly, The Outskirts, and Roddy Frame (new).

Indeed, The Stone Roses remains an immortal moment in modern British pop history. A quarter century on, one is still held enthralled by John Squire’s lovely, commanding yet beautiful guitar passages, Mani’s booming, loping bass, and Reni’s kick-drum-heavy grooves, backing a bravura performance from smallish, po-faced frontman Ian Brown, whose almost whispery trilling belies an essential brashness. There’s not a false moment, from the opening buildup of the says-it-all “I Wanna Be Adored” to the concluding, psychedelic funky freak-out of the (also self-explanatory) “I am the Resurrection.”

Also on this week’s show: Soft Science, Lightfoils (new), +/- (Plus/Minus), Sad Lovers and Giants, The Weirdos, Penetration, Radio Birdman (live), Bob Mould (new), Replacements, The Last, Throwing Muses, Tanya Donelly, Lisa Mychols, and an oldie by New Riders of the Purple Sage!

Also featured: songs byThe Stooges, MC5, Saints, New Christs, Birdman and other Tek bands/projects of the past and present, Donovan’s Brain, The Visitors, Angie Pepper, and New Race

Also on this week’s show: Bob Mould (new), Real Estate, Cheatahs, Upset, Screaming Females (live), Deniz Tek, Guided By Voices (new), Omi Palone, A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Ken Stringfellow, House of Love, Goya Dress, and Gene.

Also on this week’s show: Flying Colours, First Communion Afterparty, Ty Segall, Elvis Costello, SPC ECO, The War on Drugs, Kaleidescope (U.K.), Veronica Falls, Cheap Star, Dot Dash (Rabid Session Live at Pancake Factory Studios), Victim,The Forty Nineteens, and The Spits

Also on this week’s show: Maximo Park, Valery Trails, Chan Romero, The Rifles, Dum Dum Girls, Math & Physics Club, Dot Dash (Live “Rabid Session” at Pancake Factory Studios), New Model Army, Procol Harum (live), The Starlight Run, Negative Lovers, Wax Idols, White Blush, Last Remaining Pinnacle, and Headshy

Also on this week’s show: Radio Birdman, Teenage Fanclub, Buzzcocks, Guided By Voices, Darker My Love, Sleepover Disaster, Secret Shine, Springhouse, Belle & Sebastian, Jeremy Enigk, Mark Eitzel, Greg Graffin, The Libertines U.S., The Reducers, and Robert Forster

Also featured: songs by Wire, The Undertones, and 10 bands Dot Dash members used to play in: Swervedriver, Minor Threat, Youth Brigade (D.C.), Julie Ocean, The Saturday People, Ultracherry Violet, Strange Boutique, St. Christopher, Glo-Worm, and Tree Fort Angst!

Also on this week’s show: Omi Palone, Soft Science, Cheatahs, +/- (Plus/Minus), Sad Lovers & Giants, Allah-Las, Dot Dash (Live “Rabid Session” at Pancake Factory Studios), Guided By Voices (new), The New Mendicants, Eagulls, Daydream Machine, Nothing, The History of Colour TV, and The Sensible Grey Cells

Also on this week’s show: Roddy Frame (new), Salem 66, Long Blondes, Cramps, Penetration, Upset, Maximo Park, (Paul Collins’) The Beat, Split Single, Nomads, Guided By Voices (new), Slowdive, The Millions, The Steinbecks, and Kristin Hersh (new)

Also on this week’s show: Bevis Frond, Dum Dum Girls, The Rifles, Kaleidoscope, Elvis Costello, Rudi, The Last, 1956 Johnny Burnette Trio, The Joykiller, I Was a King, Minor Alps, Trick Mammoth, Bubblegum Lemonade, Go-Betweens, and 1971 Electric Light Orchestra.

Also on this week’s show: Baby Strange, BNLX, Soft Science, Dead Leaf Echo, Mountain Man (live), Prophet Hens, , Real Estate, Mega City Four, Marc Ganancias, X,Wire, Noh Mercy, Catherine Wheel, Headshy, andWithered Hand

Also featured: songs by Half String, Slowness, Mighty Lemon Drops, Ringo Deathstarr, Lush, Highspire, Beach Fossils, and Nothing (Dead Leaf Echo session), and Male Bonding,The History of Apple Pie, Milk Music, Sonic Youth,Waaves, Swervedriver, My Bloody Valentine and Metz (Cheatahs session)

Also on this week’s show: Bevis Frond, Soft Science, Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five (1946), The Beat (Paul Collins’), Pezband, Shoes, Dwight Twilley Band, The Chills (live), Violens, Dead Leaf Echo, The Black Watch, Warbles, Scattered Bodies, and Trespassers William

Also on this week’s show: The Valery Trails, Great Ytene, Soft Science, Daydream Machine, Jigsaw Scene, Guided By Voices, People’s Temple, Gene, The Sensible Grey Cells, Irving Kaufman, The Moondogs (Irish 1979), The Last, 65s, We Are Hex, and Scud Mountain Boys

I’m proud and pleased to present the exclusive Big Takeover premiere of this great video from Daydream Machine’s excellent new album, Twin Idols!

Also on this week’s show: Kitchens of Distinction, BLNX, Withered Hand, Sultans of Ping F.C., D.O.A., X, Marc Ganancias, The Spits, Toy, The New Mendicants, Small Faces, The Kinks, The Equals, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, and Inventions!

Ten years and four albums in, they’re still bringing 1966 red hots kicking into our era and making us beg for more.

Also on this week’s show: Michael Head & the Red Elastic Band, [Vancouver 79 tribute: Private School, D.O.A., Dishrags, Young Canadians, Subhumans (Canada)], Cheatahs, Seasurfer, Nothing, New Model Army, Minor Alps, Blake Rainey & His Demons, HeadShy, and William Fitzsimmons