News & Updates — classic albums

Part Mexican-American and part Santee-Dakota Sioux, the inspired poet/musician/actor/activist John Trudell grew up on a reservation in Nebraska and became heavily involved in the Red Power & American Indian Movements and was also a hemp advocate (alongside Willie Nelson). In '69 he was the spokesman & broadcaster for the All Tribes Occupation of Alcatraz Island, which put him right in the FBI's crosshairs. His entire family (including his children) all died in a suspicious fire the day after Trudell burned an American flag on the steps of the FBI building in '79. Soon after, his poetry career started. His first...

The innovative American psych-folk artist Tim Buckley has always been a cult favorite. His music ranged from straight folk and blue-eyed soul to weird jazz and psychedelic vocal experiments. A singer and multi-instrumentalist, he quit college to sign with Elektra and his records included some intense lyrical content, both dark, personal statements and anti-war & topical themes. His classic albums are Happy Sad, Lorca and Starsailor. He died of a heroin overdose at 28. One of my faves from Buckley, his weird side on full display:

The "left reverend" Eugene "Gene" McDaniels is largely known for three contributions to the popular consciousness. The first is his 1961 song "100 Pounds of Clay" heard on oldies stations to this day (released as Gene McDaniels). The second is his notoriety as a chart-topping song-writer ("Feel Like Makin' Love", by Roberta Flack and "Compared to What", popularized by Les McCann & Eddie Harris). And the third is his rare grove LP Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse, controversial at the time for songs that deeply examine the elite power structure (and the attempted banning of the album by the White...

James D. Yancey aka Jay Dee aka J Dilla is one of a long lineage of Detroit musical geniuses. Both a producer and a rapper, he started Slum Village in '96, produced The Pharcyde, worked with Common, Erykah Badu, Talib Kweli, De La Soul, Janet Jackson, The Roots and many others, including producing, beatmaking, rapping and remixing. His partnership with Madlib produced the classic Champion Sound album. He is an indie rap icon, more popular in death than ever. (Not sure who did the very cool profile above, but respect!) My personal favorite is his collage-album Donuts, here:

I've been chatting with some friends about whether or not Into the Unknown, Bad Religion's 1983 second album is any good. Of course that's a matter of personal taste and this bizarre departure into '70s-inspired progressive rock, with keyboards, synths & acoustic guitar, is certainly nothing the punk scene was going to go for at the time and is not at all like their hardcore stuff. Rumor has it the rhythm section walked off the recording sessions pretty early and the band broke up temporarily after this. The band didn't believe their existence would last and made a goofy record...