TOMORROW ON THE MORNING JOLT: REISSUES!

Need any last minute gifts for the discerning rock fan in your life?  Well, tune in to SiriusXM OutQ's Morning Jolt with Larry Flick tomorrow at 9 am; we'll be discussing some great reissues that have come out in the past few months that will make great gifts.  (Don't have a SiriusXM subscription?  Go here to learn how to try SiriusXM on a trial basis).

First off is the newly released Jimi Hendrix box set, Winterland. I wrote about this a few months ago: the box set is drawn from six concerts Jimi played at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom over three nights in October of 1968. It's certainly not where I'd recommend a new fan starts, but it is an incredible collection nonetheless.  There's also a single CD version for those not looking to go the 4 CD box set route.

We're also going to talk about recently reissued Pink Floyd catalog. You can get the entire catalog as a box set for about $180, or get the albums individually.  There's also expanded versions of two of their greatest albums, Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here.

Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band recently reissued their two classic live albums, Live Bullet and Nine Tonight. I recently kind of "discovered" the greatness of Bob Seger and I wrote about it earlier tonight.

Earlier this year, I wrote about the first five Queen albums which had recently been reissued. The rest of their albums have since been reissued and I'll talk about those also.

By the way, I'll be in the studio next week as well, talking about my favorite albums of 2011.  It wasn't a great year for music, but it was a good one, and I'm having a hard time narrowing it down.

TOO MUCH HENDRIX? NO SUCH THING. WINTERLAND ROCKS!

A couple of months ago, I was driving a friend home in my car and playing the then-recently released Jimi Hendrix collection Valleys Of Neptune. I explained that it was a brand new release with (sort of) previously unreleased recordings.  He asked, "where do they keep finding this stuff?"  It's a good point -- for a guy whose career lasted about four years, there are a hell of a lot of Jimi Hendrix releases out there. And given the fact that in the past two decades, the catalog has resided at Warner Brothers, MCA, Universal and now Sony (with some live stuff licensed to Rykodisc, and the Band Of Gypsys album on Capitol), things can get confusing.

That said, the recently released Winterland box set is something you should have if you're interested in hearing some amazing live performances by The Jimi Hendrix Experience.  Recorded during a six show stand at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom in October of 1968, this was the Experience at the peak of their powers.  There's such swagger to their performance, Jimi sounds really into it, and it sounds as if he is not yet tired of playing any of these songs.  Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell are tight as hell. The band is incredible, and they all know it.  Playing distorted guitar at that point in time was still a relatively new thing, and it was probably even considered a political act, an act of liberation.  There's a lot of improvisation going on, and that was still probably relatively new in rock and roll and popular music.

The box set is 4 CDs. The first three feature full shows, and the fourth has spare tracks from some of the other shows, plus a cool interview with Jimi.  And you may wonder if you really need four more live versions of "Purple Haze."  You may, you may not.  But some of his songs that show up multiple times on the box - like "Are You Experienced?" and "Red House" have varying lengths at the different shows, and it's interesting to hear his different takes on the same song from one day to the next.  The "Are You Experienced?" versions are definite highlights here - on one, he has a flautist (Virgo Gonslaves from opening act The Buddy Miles Express) as he does on the album version. The other has no flute. "Little Wing" is amazing.  "Manic Depression" kicks ass, as does "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)."  The instrumental cover of Cream's "Sunshine Of Your Love"  is great, as is the cover of of Nordic rockers Hansson and Carlsson's "Tax Free."

For those of you who want a taste of this without having to go all in on a box set, there is a single CD version of this, but I'm a box set fan, and Sony Legacy (who provided me with a review copy) did a great job with this box, I would definitely have purchased it, and I recommend it highly.

GUITAR WORLD'S 100 GREATEST (MY ADJUSTMENTS) (part 1)

Guitar World magazine's new issue features their list of the "100 Greatest Classic Rock Guitar Songs."  I think they put together a great list, with some great choices that, sadly, don't get played on what is known on "classic rock" radio, including Bill Haley & The Comets' "Rock Around The Clock, Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock," Prince & The Revolution's "Purple Rain" and the #1 song, Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode."

As I often do, I create my own iPod mix to go along with the feature, with my own adjustments.   In some cases I switched one band's song with another (like with Led Zeppelin: I know "Stairway To Heaven" is, like, the most played song ever on classic rock radio or something, but I'm tired of it and I prefer "The Rain Song").  In other cases, I replaced some bands for others, creating my ideal classic rock lineup.  Not to be a snob, but on my planet, James Brown, The Stooges and The Clash are classic rock, whereas Kansas and Journey are not.  So, here's my list:

1. Chuck Berry - "Johnny B. Goode" Yeah, it's such an obvious choice (I prefer "Brown Eyed Handsome Man"... read the lyrics and replace "eyed" with "skinned" and it's a pretty radical song for the era).  But it's such an important song.  Not just in rock and roll, but in American culture.

2. Led Zeppelin - "The Rain Song" As I mentioned above, GW used "Stairway To Heaven," but, as much as I enjoy J.R.R. Tolkien's lore, which inspired the lyrics, it's sort of an overplayed song. "The Rain Song" resonates with me much more.  "Upon us all a little rain must fall." This song is as much about John Paul Jones' string arrangements as Jimmy Page's guitar though. But still, it's powerful and beautiful.

3. Jimi Hendrix - "I Don't Live Today" replacing "Purple Haze." I love "Haze," but it's another one that "classic rock" radio has driven into the ground.  "I Don't Live Today" is just as rockin', and is from the same album, Are You Experienced?

4. Guns N' Roses - "Sweet Child O' Mine" Overplayed? Hell yeah.  But when this jam came out in '87, you couldn't get enough of it.  Slash's riff was unbelievable, and he and Izzy Stradlin' were just such a great team. "Welcome To The Jungle" also made GW's list, but I kept Guns (and most other bands) to just one song.

5. Metallica - "For Whom The Bell Tolls" replacing "Enter Sandman." I love "Sandman," and I know it's where a lot of people discovered Metallica. I discovered them on a radio show called "Metal Shop," and "For Whom The Bell Tolls" was the song. I've never gotten tired of it. I have always loved James Hetfield's muscular rhythm playing.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: HENDRIX, MARLEY, MICHAEL AND SPECTOR

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, you can hear me (almost) every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET on the SiriusXM Channel OutQ on the show The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. Every week I talk about music. Surprise!

The last few weeks, I've been pretty Grammy focused. Tomorrow, I'm talking about older music.  I mean, hey, if you still have those Amazon or iTunes or Barnes & Noble gift cards, you wanna use them, right?  (And if you have a Borders gift card, you really want use that one sooner rather than later!). Here's some ideas on what to use them on.

Last year, Sony Legacy released a new Jimi Hendrix box set, West Coast Seattle Boy. 4 CDs and a DVD, but it's mainly for the aficionados, I wrote a review of it here.  It's mostly hard-to-find stuff (disc 1 is all music from his days as a sideman) and alternate versions.

Bob Marley & The Wailers' Live Forever on Universal, is a recording of the man's final concert, recorded in September of 1980, just months before he died. It's pretty powerful stuff, although the sound quality starts to crap out towards the end.

Sony has also just re-released George Michael's 1987 album, Faith. Because of many reasons, people have forgotten that in 1987, he was really big - he was a peer of Madonna, Prince and Michael Jackson. This reissue reminds you why.  Disc 1 features the album, Disc 2 is B-sides and dance remixes and Disc 3 is a DVD with an interview from the era, a doc on his Faith tour and his music videos from the album. If you're a George Michael fan, you should definitely pick this up.

Finally, it seems that Sony has acquired the Phil Spector catalog, and they are releasing single CD compilations from some of his artist.  Tomorrow I'll have best of albums by The Ronettes and The Crystals.

JIMI HENDRIX - WEST COAST SEATTLE BOY

Late last year, Sony Legacy and Experience Hendrix released a new Jimi Hendrix box set, West Coast Seattle Boy.  Sony signed a deal with the Hendrix Estate for the Jimi catalog, and to put out more unreleased recordings, and create new box sets.  There's lots of deleted box sets from Warner Brothers and Universal, so what can Sony Legacy offer that we haven't gotten? (And by the way, I'll state here that Legacy provided me with a promo copy so I can write about it for you).

Well, one cool thing is that on disc 1, it's all music that pre-dates Jimi's solo career. It's hard to believe that there hasn't been a (non-bootleg) collection like this before, but it's cool to have all of this stuff together in one place. There's well known artists like Little Richard and The Isley Brothers, lesser known artists like Don Covay and King Curtis and people I'd never heard of (Rosa Lee Brooks, The Icemen). As a liner notes writer myself, I appreciate the liner notes - they really explain all of these groups and detail Jimi's involvement with them. Although Jimi's virtuosity isn't the focus of any of these songs, it's interesting to hear him try and get some shine even though he's a hired hand. I would say disc 1 is the main reason to get this.

Another part that I loved is on disc 2, there's six songs recorded in Jimi's hotel room in New York in March of 1968.  It's just Jimi on electric guitar and singing, accompanied on two songs by Paul Caruso on harmonica and vocals. Raw but stripped down versions of Bob Dylan's "Tears Of Rage," "Hear My Train A'Comin'," "1983 (A Merman I Shall Turn To Be)," "Long Hot Summer Night," "My Friend" (which I hadn't heard before) and "Angel." The rest of the box features lots of outtakes, unreleased versions and unreleased mixes. It's not quite essential, it's pretty much for completists.  But, seeing how Jimi died at 27, it's understandable that people would want to hear every last note.

The other cool thing about this box set is the DVD, which contains a documentary, narrated in Jimi's own words, from his interviews and letters to his father.  Bootsy Collins reads the narration as Jimi, and is surprisingly sedate and sensitive.  It's a cool approach and it works well. It you're a big Jimi fan, you've probably read most of the interviews that the doc draws from, but this puts it together in an interesting new way.  Which is, I guess, what Sony does with Jimi's material on this box set.

If you're new to Jimi, my advice is get the three studio albums that he released during his lifetime: Are You Experienced?, Axis: Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland. After that, go for First Rays Of The New Rising Sun (the studio album Jimi was working on at the time of his death), BBC Sessions and Band Of Gypsys. Then Live At Monterey and Live at Woodstock if they are in print. Those are the essentials. But you can't go wrong with Jimi's outtakes, they are better than most band's greatest hits!

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: REISSUES AND BOX SETS

Polish your debit cards, ya'll!  Later this morning on SIRIUS XM OutQ's The Morning Jolt With Larry Flick, I'll be talking about great gift ideas: namely reissues and box sets. 

Three of them I wrote about earlier tonight: Bruce Springsteen's Darkness On The Edge Of Town box set, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' deluxe reissue of Damn The Torpedoes, and David Bowie's deluxe reissue of Station To Station.

Also:

* The new Jimi Hendrix box set, West Coast Seattle Boy. A lot of it seems to be live and alternate versions of stuff. But it also has lots of recordings of Jimi as a sideman, before he went solo.  So you get to hear Jimi with The Isley Brothers, Little Richard and more. That's worth the price right there.

* R.E.M.'s reissue of their classic Fables Of The Reconstruction. Classic album, no question. But the bonus disc contains demo versions of the album.  Nice to have for fanatics, but for everyone else, the regular album should suffice.

* The latest installment of the Bob Dylan Bootleg Series, Volume 9. The Whitmark Demos features imperfect demo recordings from 1962-1964.  Some pretty cool stuff there, but not essential (I much prefer Volume 8, which covers 1989 - 2008).

* An Introduction To Syd Barrett is a single CD collecting Barrett's stuff with Pink Floyd and as a solo artist.  It's a great gift for people who don't know who he is - anyone who likes Floyd should be familar with this stuff, and if they're not, get this and help them out!

* And two Duran Duran dexlue reissues: they've re-releeased their Notorious and Big Thing albums, both with tons of extra stuff.

GUITAR WORLD'S 30 COOLEST GUITARISTS - NO IOMMI?

As I've mentioned before, I love lists.  I just caught up with last month's issue of Guitar World, and they feature a list of the "30 Coolest Guitarist of All Time" which is a weird thing for a magazine like that to have. Don't get me wrong, I love Guitar World, I buy it all the time and I don't even play guitar. They do great interviews that you don't have to be a musician to appreciate. Anyway, no reason to overthink it - it's a fun piece. The list contains a lot of who you would expect: Joe Perry (who is on the cover with "Synyster Gates" of Avenged Sevenfold who also made the list), Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards and Eddie Van Halen. Plus guys who really belong there, like Buddy Guy, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Frank Zappa and T-Bone Walker (but no John Lee Hooker!). And there were some less obvious choices, like Brian Setzer, Joe Strummer, Mike Ness and James Williamson of The Stooges (but not Ron Asheton!).  The one thing I really couldn't get over was that Tony Iommi wasn't included.  He has the best riffs, and he is the coolest! But that's the fun thing about lists I guess, arguing about them!

TOMORROW ON OUT: FACE-MELTING GUITAR

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET I go on the SIRIUS XM channel OutQ. I am a weekly contributor to The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. This week, I'll be talking about some of the greatest guitarists of rock and roll, including the man who may just be the best. But their music isn't about guitar wankery, it's about great songs that feature amazing guitar. This isn't music (just) for musos. 

First up is Jimi Hendrix, who I meant to talk about weeks ago, and then I missed a day at work due to snow. I'll be talking about Jimi's catalog, which has recently been relaunched by Sony Legacy, and a new collection that they put out called Valleys Of Neptune. I think lawsuits between opposing forces laying claim to Jimi's legacy have, sadly, lowered his "stock." I'm not talking about his influence, I'm talking about, when a "new" Jimi release comes out, people don't care as much: they have the real albums, and there's been so many crappy other releases. But I've been listening to the new Axis: Bold As Love and it sounds great. As for Valleys Of Neptune, it's cool and the title track is awesome.

Sony Legacy also recently put out a tenth (!) anniversary edition of Santana's Supernatural. People rip on that album, but it brought Carlos back to the limelight, which was a beautiful thing. There was some great collabs - as I've said before, I ain't mad about "Smooth" featuring Rob Thomas - but there were great classic songs that weren't collabs, like "Da Le Yaleo." The bonus disc has a bunch of cool songs, but the original album really holds up in my opinion.

Influenced by Jimi and also the Santana Supernatural approach is Slash's new self-titled album, which I wrote about a while back. Slash with an all-star cast of guests: Iggy, Alice, Lemmy and Ozzy. And Fergie. As these "all-star" type albums usually are, it's a bit uneven. My favorite song features Lemmy: "Doctor Alibi." I also liked "Promise" featuring Chris Cornell, "Gotten" featuring Adam Levine of Maroon 5 (for real) and "We're All Gonna Die" (featuring Iggy Pop even though the lyrics aren't great). There's a goofy new version of Guns N Roses' "Paradise City" featuing Fergie and Cypress Hill that kind of made me laugh a bit.

Finally, I'll try to get to the new live Ben Harper & Relentless 7 album, Live From The Montreal International Jazz Festival, which contains a great cover of Jimi's "Red House." Call in and tell us about your favorite guitar heroes!

THIS WEEK ON OUTQ: JIMI HENDRIX (AND IT'S ON FRIDAY)

Instead of going on The Morning Jolt With Larry Flick tomorrow as usual, this week I'm changing to Friday.  I'll post more about it Thursday night, but I'll be bringing lots of Jimi Hendrix to the show. Today Sony Legacy reissued the Jimi catalog and also released Valleys Of Neptune, a collection of pretty much previously unreleased material.

WATCH THE NEW JIMI HENDRIX VIDEO

This is the "new" video for Jimi Hendrix' "Valleys Of Neptune" which I wrote about before. The song is not quite as "previously unheard" or "unreleased" as they are saying it is. It was previously released on a long out-of-print box set called Lifelines: The Jimi Hendrix Story that came out in 1990. (I have it on cassette!) It was on Warner Brothers Records, which was two or three record labels ago for the Hendrix catalog. Anyway, "Valleys Of Neptune" is included as part of a radio show (I think it was produced by the BBC), but the problem is, the DJ talks a bit over the song. (The first three discs is the radio show, the fourth is a concert recording). I have to pop it in my cassette deck and listen to it again, but I am afraid it may be warped! Anyway, great song. The album, Valleys Of Neptune, featuring some of Jimi's last recordsings, comes out March 9.

JIMI HENDRIX "VALLEYS OF NEPTUNE" DUE OUT IN MARCH

Over the summer, I wrote about how Experience Hendrix - the company that owns the recordings of Jimi Hendrix - was leaving Universal Music at the end of 2009 and moving to Sony Legacy. I wondered, "What could get me to buy more Jimi Hendrix CDs?" Obviously, I love Jimi, but I've purchased the all the studio albums more than once, and ditto for different versions of his BBC recordings, Woodstock, Montery, and his live Band Of Gypsys album.

Well, Experience Hendrix has answered that question: they just announced that on March 9, they will be releasing Valley Of Neptune, which will feature rare and unreleased stuff, including the title track, which was recorded at Jimi's final sessions. That song is actually on the long out-of-print Lifelines box set from 1990 ( back when the catalog was on Reprise Records). Lifelines was a four CD (or in my case, four cassette -- time to see if my car's tape deck is still working!) box set.  The first three tapes were a long BBC radio doc on Jimi (so most of the songs have narration and/or interview clips over the beginning and/or end, so the version of "Valley Of Neptune" isn't "clean"), and the 4th tape was a concert recorded 4/26/69 in Los Angeles.  Sony should reissue Lifelines, and give the option of "clean" versions of the songs. Another good box set from those days (which I also have only on cassette) was Stages, four tapes, each one a different concert from a different year.

Anyway, March 9 will also see the reissue of all three Jimi Hendrix Experience albums, the Smash Hits collection and First Rays Of The New Rising Sun, (all with documentary DVDs) and a Woodstock DVD.

ERIC CLAPTON AND STEVE WINWOOD LIVE AT MSG: WORTH THE BUCKS (for the CD)

For decades, Eric Clapton never really had to look back that much. He is so enduringly popular as a solo artist, that he hasn't had to reunite with anyone. In 2003, he joined John Mayall onstage for the latter's 70th birthday concert (you can hear the amazing results on John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers and Friends 70th Birthday Concert). In 2005 he had his "hell freezes over" moment and reunited with Cream for four nights at the Royal Albert Hall (followed a few months later by three nights at Madison Square Garden). Soon after that, he kind of made peace with the ghosts of Derek & The Dominoes -- he hired Derek Trucks of The Allman Brothers Band (he was named after the group) for his backing band, and performed Dominoes songs that he hadn't done in decades. (I thought it would have been nice if he included Dominoes keyboardist/singer Bobby Whitlock, but oh well). Then, in 2008, he revisited Blind Faith -- sort of -- with singer/keyboardist/guitarist Steve Winwood with a couple of shows at Madison Square Garden. (I say "sort of," because they declined to invite drummer Ginger Baker -- whom Clapton dealt with in the Cream reunion.)

Meanwhile, Winwood, who had done a few Traffic reunions over the years, is now unable to reunite with that band, as drummer/singer Jim Capaldi passed away a few years ago, and Winwood and Traffic guitarist/singer Dave Mason hate each other. Short of rejoining The Spencer Davis Group, Blind Faith is the only band he can revisit with a member he can deal with. But a funny thing happened a few years back: after years of making boring adult contemporary albums (much like Clapton's), Winwood got his mojo back with 2003's very Traffic-like About Time. (Unfortunately, he sort of lost it again on last year's Nine Lives, which came out at around the time of these shows.)

So, anyway, this show could have been a really schmaltzy affair done as a money grab by two legends who have been mostly coasting for decades. But there are some inspired moments here - even on some of thier '80s hits: Winwood's "Split Decision" (which I think originally featured Joe Walsh on guitar) and Clapton's "Forever Man" (sung as a duet) are both pretty great.

But the best moments, unsurprisingly, are when they revisit Blind Faith - you can't really call it a "catalog," as they only had one album. Opening with the track that kicked off their self-titled album from 1969, "Had To Cry Today," you can hear the "unfinished business" that Clapton mentioned when they originally announced the duo shows. "Presence Of The Lord," also sung as a duet (on the album, Winwood did all the vocals, with Clapton sticking to guitar) is pretty moving, considering all the things he's been through over the decades. But Sam Myers' "Sleeping In The Ground," Buddy Holly's "Well All Right" and of course their greatest song, "Can't Find My Way Back Home"... there's not a bad moment there. Clapton avoids Cream, playing mostly stuff from his solo repertoire, but also rocks Derek's "Tell The Truth." When they cover Winwood's Traffic stuff, it's also great, especially "Mr. Fantasy." And I have to mention the trio of Jimi Hendrix covers - "Little Wing," "Voodoo Chile" and "Them Changes" (the latter was done by Jimi's Band Of Gypsys, and was actually written and sung by drummer Buddy Miles - who passed away just a few days after this Clapton/Winwood performance was recorded). I was pretty cynical about these shows: in fact, I didn't even try to go because the pricing was aimed at what Lennon referred to as the "rattle your jewelry" crowd. I still maintain that they charge too much for these shows, but this live album proves that there is still some inspiration in Clapton and Winwood. And now I'm thinking twice about ignoring the Clapton/Jeff Beck shows.

JIMI HENDRIX SIGNS TO SONY

OK, so that is a bit of a misleading headline. But the Jimi Hendrix catalog, run by Experience Hendrix Records, is moving from Universal Music to Sony Legacy. And speaking of misleading, a couple of months ago, I misreported that Experience Hendrix signed a new deal with Universal: that was actually a publishing deal, not a record deal. Sorry about that. But I do wonder if Experience Hendrix will still release the February 1969 gigs at London's Royal Albert Hall that I wrote about in that same story. That's the main thing I care about - will there be cool stuff that we haven't heard before as part of this deal... and I don't mean studio noodling that was never meant for human consumption, I mean quality recordings of live performances.

The press release announcing the Experience Hendrix/Sony deal says that they'll be releasing expaneded editions of all the Jimi albums, but I wonder what hasn't already been released?

TODAY ON OUTQ: WOODSTOCK

I think that the owners of the name (and brand) of "Woodstock" probably thought that the festival's 40th anniversary was going to be a bigger deal than it has turned out to be. There are a bunch of CD releases: the complete performances by Sly & The Family Stone, Santana, Janis Joplin, The Jefferson Airplane and Johnny Winter on Sony Legacy, and a new Woodstock box set on Rhino, plus an Ang Lee film based on the festival.

To me, Woodstock is a bit like Elvis: something that people who lived through it will talk endlessly about, and you can't deny it's historical importance whether or not you like the music. But the percentage of good music to bad isn't so high. In other words, with Elvis, I love to listen to the Sun Records sessions, but hardly anything else, and that's a relatively small percentage of his career. With Woodstock, some of my favorite artists - like Sly, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Creedence Clearwater Revival - played the festival.

I will say that Santana's performance is one of the best live recordings I've ever heard - and it's the performance that kind of "broke" him to a wider audience. Sly's was great too. Hendrix's had it's moments (even "The Star Spangled Banner" goes on way too long) but it wasn't his best live performance by a long shot.

So, that's what we'll be talking about today, with maybe a bit of Woodstock '94 and '99 thrown in. I actually attended both of those: '94 was great, but '99 was obviously a disaster despite some great moments.

ACOUSTIC LADYLAND?

According to The Independent, a reel to reel tape of Jimi Hendrix doing acoustic demos for songs from Electric Ladyland will soon be legally auctioned.  What the article doesn't clarify is if this tape will be sold just as a piece of memorabilia, or with the potential to release it to the public (I hope for the latter, but doubt it). 

MITCH MITCHELL 1946 - 2008

Mitch Mitchell died today - he was the drummer for The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Of course, Jimi Hendrix was the obvious focal point for the band: his guitar playing, singing, his persona, everything about him, musically, was perfect. But the name on the record is "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" instead of "Jimi Hendrix" for a reason. You just need to listen to it to understand. Listen to "Fire," Mitch is as exciting as Ginger Baker or John Bonham or Keith Moon. Even after Jimi split with bassist Noel Redding, he still played with Mitch in a group that also featured bassist Billy Cox from Jimi's other group, The Band Of Gypsys. In fact, Mitch and Billy just finished a Jimi Hendrix tribute tour. Rest in peace, Mitch Mitchell.

THERE'S STILL MORE UNHEARD JIMI HENDRIX MATERIAL OUT THERE?

Yep, according to this. Jimi Hendix's recording with The Ghetto Fighters may be seeing the light of day soon. Of course, nothing Jimi-related ends up being released without a fight from the Hendrix estate.

As a fan, I don't care about the politics involved. I wonder if the material is any good, and if so, will we ever get to hear it?

THE STILLS/HENDRIX BAND?

I've read that tapes have surfaced

of an album's worth of material by Stephen Stills and Jimi Hendrix. I'm pretty excited to hear this, but with reservations: there's so much Hendrix stuff that has come out over the years that maybe should have stayed in the vaults. That said, everything that is currently out is pretty cool. Jimi played on a track on Stills' debut solo album, I guess these sessions were recorded at around that time. 

JIMI HENDRIX: THE ULTIMATE "GUITAR HERO"

Jimi Hendrix's songs will finally be coming to the next edition of Guitar Hero, and his likeness will be in the game as well. I'm sure some people won't like that, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm happy that this will bring Jimi to a new audience.

I recently listened to Are You Experienced?, and I was totally blown away by how powerful it still is. If someone is going to get the "experience" of hearing that album in full for the first time... I'm jealous of them.

INSERT "OLD" JOKE HERE: RICK RUBIN TO PRODUCE CSN

Soon after the announcement that Rick Rubin is
going to produce the next ZZ Top album, word comes out that he's also producing the next Crosby Stills & Nash record. According to Billboard, it's going to be an album of covers.

I remember about ten years ago, there was talk that the trio was going to record an album of songs they had done in thier former bands: The Byrds, The Buffalo Springfield and The Hollies. They ditched that idea, started writing new songs, and went to the studio for the sessions which would eventually attract Neil Young for the Crosby Stills Nash & Young album Looking Forward. But if Rick doesn't want new songs, the band is obviously smart enough to do what he wants to be able to work with him. But Rick Rubin doesn't spend as much time in the studio as other producers: I wonder how that will go.

In the same Billboard story, Graham Nash mentions some other interesting projects, including an album worth of unreleased tapes of Stephen Stills playing with Jimi Hendrix. Nash also said that he was putting together a live album from CSNY's 1974 tour. The Neil tome Shakey didn't make that tour sound too great, but I'd gladly buy that album. I'd rather hear a live album from the 1999 or 2001 tours though.

By the way, the "old" in the title is a reference to the title track of Looking Forward where Neil sings about "trying not to use the word 'old.'" But I wonder: Columbia Records signed Rick as a Exec VP last year: I wonder how signing ZZ and producing CSN will give them a return on their investment?