Like a refreshing summer rain in the Clinch Mountains of Virginia, a new tribute CD to a national legacy has swept me deep in piney-woods bliss. From the electrifying intonation of Elvis Presley's voice and Johnny Cash's bass profundo, to the taste of butter, salt, and pepper over yellow corn grits, some things just blast straight down one's chain of American DNA, regardless of where you call home.
Superjoint Ritual could just be the strangest metal band in the world. For one thing, it's the now-full-time project of Pantera frontman Philip Anselmo, the "chosen one" of what seemed like a dozen side projects he participated in over the past few years.
• With an overflowing crush of CD releases in the next two months, new artists and new albums will have to fight for the back-to-school dollar against a host of exciting, expanded CD re- issues. Honored as the best rock album of the 1980s by the editors of Rolling Stone, The Clash's London Calling from 1979 was a life-changing experience for many, in a magical time when these godfathers of punk walked away from the mangled production of 1978's Give 'Em Enough Rope and said: Why not a double album then, and a triple-album set next (in 1980)? Due next month on Epic's Legacy label, the bonus material is to die for, with demos from the era recently discovered by guitarist Mick Jones, rare photos, and new writings reflecting on this 25th-anniversary edition.

The Carmody boys didn't plan to get into the bar business when they bought the building at 1815 Second Avenue in Rock Island. The family - patriarch John and his sons Dan and Jerry - wanted to renovate the building and lease it out, but when two tenants fell through, they opened the Rock Island Brewing Company in 1979.

Forming the band The Metrolites was just "something to do," said the band's leader, Scott Morschhauser. Oh, how things change in less than two years. The story of the Quad Cities best (if only) surf spy noir spaghetti-western lounge band is one of steadily increasing expectations and aspirations.
• Like Leonard Cohen channeling the ghost of Jacob Marley, this Tuesday's release of Bubblegum by the whiskey-throated Mark Lanegan is an early contender for my top 10 of the year. Mesmerizing as the voice of Seattle's Screaming Trees, and as the sorcerer of a handful of haunted solo albums in the 1990s, Lanegan's lonesome pine comes from one who's walked the walk of addiction, with each breath like a sandy step along an endless beach toward redemption, Judgment Day, or whatever comes next.
Less than two minutes into A Is Jump’s My Ice-Fingered Ghost, it’s readily apparent that even though this isn’t a typical release from the Quad Cities-based Future Appletree label, it’s a good match for the imprint’s oddity-laced pop sound.
• This Tuesday the United States of Distribution imprint releases four CDs in its new BUZZOLA series, collecting vintage recordings into cleverly themed 18-track treasure troves. With songs reaching back as far as 1923 and into the Cold War era, each CD is meant to tickle, or caress, a different part of your brain and heart.
After 32 years, the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival's audience isn't getting any younger. "Our crowd is usually quite old" - typically over 45 - said Ray Voss, president of the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Society, which runs the annual festival featuring jazz styles from the 1920s and '30s.
• Everything's gone cover crazy this Tuesday with a mother lode of new interpretations to wrap inquisitive ears around. Paul Weller, mod icon and founding member of The Jam and the Style Council, is prepping the September release of his all-covers collection, Studio 150, with an advance import-only EP this week.

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