Boogie Chitz

During the fall of 1972 David Bowie jumped into a onesie, got the red mullet shaped-up and unleashed his Ziggy Tour on America. The October 20th show from the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium was broadcast live by LA radio station KMET and was passed around for years as a bootleg before it got the official release treatment in 2008. This hour-fifteen set is the sound of an awesome rock band discovering their powers in real time. As good as a live album gets.

Person Pitch COULD have been an artsy folk LP piece of trash. But thanks to the mysterious hero who stole Panda Bear's beloved acoustic guitar at the Lisbon Airport in 2005 - it didn't. Instead we were blessed with a Mangina Electronica masterpiece and one of the best 'by yourself' listens in all of recorded music history. Beethoven you can snort adderall to.

An arrogant Satan attempts to manifest one more hit vocal pop record before the decade is over and uses the goddaughters of Latin jazz vibraphonist Cal Tjader as his messengers; Genesis is a wonderful quick listen for the crate diggers.

Before Nick Cave became the legendary gothic grinch we continue to love to present day he was in a shrieking drug band with his college friends called The Birthday Party. They lasted five years but my God what a mess. On their way to the finish line they cranked out one final record called Junkyard - basically a giant musical temper tantrum crafted into a ten-track scuzzball masterpiece. One of the coolest albums of the 1980s.

Eric Clapton puts the theory that he is 'God' to the test by attempting the fulfillment of two prophecies: 1) become the coolest AMERICAN guitarist in the game and 2) nail his best friend's wife. He would succeed at both - and ruin quite a few lives in the process. But not OUR lives - no - we get one of the best double albums ever recorded. Our lives are even better because of his mania. Thanks Eric...I mean Derek.

For over twenty-five years The Verve has been designated as 'the band with the guy with the face that did Bitter Sweet Symphony.' But there is always more to discover. You see - there was an Enya before and after Orinoco Flow; the Baha Men were once Baha Boys; and The Verve's first album A Storm in Heaven is an absolute psychedelic guitar odyssey. Can't wait to get thru it so we can play a nip of Bitter Sweet Sympfff.

Analog Africa is granted access to the Radio Mogadishu archives by vault guardian Colonel Abshir Hashi Ali and commence compiling a mind-blowing collection of funky oddities from Somalia's Golden Age of Music.

Hard work and tireless genital thematics kept Poison consistently near the crest of Hair Hunx Mountain - but they reached the actual peak with their second album - Open Up and Say...Ahh! It capped off Poison's incredible 1988 - one of the best individual band years in the entire Hair Hunx Dynasty. A pair of American classics are on Poison number two and you'd be surprised to learn they actually picked-up some indie cred along the way.

The tireless Cheap Trick’s second album In Color is loved by classic rock fans, critics and music historians alike - but hated by the band. They thought the producer Tom Werman did them dirty - polishing up their sound behind their back - which he did. But too bad - it worked. Underrated classic released a year before this pairing of two oddballs and two hunks became big in Japan.

Zebby Tembo was the drummer for Zamrock legends Ngozi Family - very true - but he also wrote his own songs. My Ancestors was the first of two known Zebby solo albums - recorded in 1976 during the same time his main band was crushing faces and melting underpanties all over Lusaka. A bare bones stoner Zamrock classic.

The Damned were at the forefront of British punk - a party band providing dark comedic relief to a scene often fueled by inner rage. But two years in and they were done - burned out and looking to do something else. So The Damned broke up - for like a minute. With names like 'Rat Scabies' and 'Captain Sensible' what else could they do but rock and roll? Nothing. The re-energized band reformed in 1979, dropped Machine Gun Etiquette and never stopped knockin' socks off. Absolute classic.

It took a traumatic event for young Robin Pecknold to realize he possessed the gift of the Mangina Majestica. Only a few years later he turned that haunting memory into an unforgettable mangina band. Shore is Fleet Foxes at their catchiest and most tightly-tucked.

The Mac Attack's Mirage Tour concluded in October 1982 and the cranky gentle-rockers were clearly ready for a hiatus. While grandma-haired Lindsey Buckingham and the rest of the Mac sulked, Stevie Nicks made new friends and cranked out The Wild Heart - the energetic follow-up to Bella Donna. Stevie Nicks at her peak here - right before she quit coke and started wearing the Mrs. Doubtfire outfits.

By the time the Isolar Tour ended in May 1976 David Bowie was sick of his family and friends (yuck) hassling him to stop snorting his beloved Raoul. Get out of my face.

His plan was simple: tell everyone he was gonna clean out in Germany to throw them off his trail and then escape to Paris - where he can continue to snort drizzugs, bang black women, wear Nazi World War II regalia and just be David Bowie in peace. He would need some assistance in completing his mission though - so the first move was to call The Idiot.

The Who at their beautifully shambolic live peak. Pete Townshend had one goal as the new decade began - release a live Who album capturing all those new Tommy songs in their superior raw form. Well Pete threw a temper tantrum when he discovered that everything recorded from the previous year was unusable. After his fit, composure was found - and The Who booked two shows in February for the sole purpose of getting a live LP out of them. The magnificent Live At Leeds was the result - and there is not one Tommy song in the original track list. Go figure.

Pega Monstro are Portuguese sisters Júlia and Maria Reis - and that's it. Unless you count Rodrigo Rodizio as an actual member. The Reis girls quickly became leaders of the Lisbon rock scene fifteen years ago - especially after founding Cafetra Records and providing an outlet for their friends' groups to release music. But friends don't matter when a masterpiece needs to be made - and in 2015 Pega Monstro left Portugal for London to unleash the Alfarroba. And we thank them for that.

The Bushman of Limpopo was an awesome Pop Africanus singer who cranked out over forty records during his lifetime. This while also earning three college degrees and a career in labour law that rivals his success in the music game. With Modjadji the Rain Queen helping assist his destiny Steve Kekana overcame blindness, nasty Belgian monks and other assorted obstacles to live a life of black radiance. Nomsa Ntombi Yami was the Kekana's second album - classic Mbaqanga - released a few years before South African music blew up on a global scale.

An overlooked chestnut from 1970s New York City fixture Garland Jeffreys. Good guy and relentless overachiever facing challenges like - having a fanbase more famous than him and - the constant bullying from his best friend's older brother Roy. A solid neck-to-nut worth the time.

The Paisley Underground bands of Los Angeles were keeping garage rock revivalism on full blast out west in 1984. But on the east coast Monoman and Lyres were doing it alone in Boston. Heavy on passion, lite on precision - Lyres' debut LP On Fyre is a skipless stomper that was recorded in a flurry of single takes into one microphone - let us bask in the oneness of Monoman.

Not the brightest bulbs in the offseason tanning bed - but Jacksonville's 38 Special stumbled into genius by polishing up their southern rock frame for 1980s MTV consumption with album four - Wild-Eyed Southern Boys - butt rock for the BEDAZZLED jean short.