#reissues--demos

#reissues--demos

Digital typewriters are carving out a niche for a more focused writing experience, stripping things back to the essentials: just you, a keyboard, and your words.

Images of Life comprises three LPs; Strange Mysterious Sounds (1965-1970) centers on Lucas' early bands; Rainy Days (1970-1974) gathers solo material from the lead-up to his 1975 self-titled album; and Impossible Love (1979) is a 'lost' album produced by Don Was.

"At 2 a.m., sitting up and contemplating our loss during my child's wake, I found myself reflecting on all the major news events that had left their mark on me through the years and the helplessness I sometimes felt to change anything. Writing the last verse was the most difficult and personal thing I've done."

The AT-LP120XUSB features basically everything you could want from a modern, upgraded turntable. The built-in phono preamp lets you easily swap the turntable from your headphones to your speakers without any extra steps or hardware.

Shot by photographer Michael Ochs, the band appears completely wrapped in a single sheet of translucent pink plastic or fabric, a playful literal riff on their name that perfectly suits the whimsical, experimental spirit of the psychedelic era.

"The last Sublime record that will ever be made is Self-Titled. There's no replacing history, period. Until the Sun Explodes the album is an epilogue, and 'Until the Sun Explodes' the single is the epilogue to the epilogue."

R&B in the 21st century has been in a constant state of flux, tugged between safe traditionalism and blurry attempts at progression. For the last decade-plus that "progression" has seen R&B music become more indebted to trap records and the moody atmospherics of alternative bands like Radiohead, Coldplay, or My Bloody Valentine.

It's similar to a vinyl record, but the tracks are in a USB drive. It has no moving parts inside, so it's totally digital in how it stores sound. But it has a physical shape users can hold, flip over, look at, and collect, so in a way, the designer is asking: what if digital music had a physical body?

Usually, my handbag is a medley of digital devices and life essentials my phone, iPad, chargers, keys, tampons. But lately, you're likely to also find a half-done newspaper crossword, a ton of stationery, the book I've restarted three times, and whatever scraps and trinkets I've picked up throughout the day to put in my scrapbook. Analog is back, and it feels like we need it more than ever.

1. Soda and beer cans that came with pull tabs:

My father kept manuals for products we hadn't owned in years, filed alphabetically in a cabinet. When I asked why, he looked at me like I'd suggested burning money. "What if we need to look something up?" The concept of finding any manual online in seconds just doesn't compute for a generation that had to rely on these paper lifelines.

Chances are this does exactly what you need. It will play your old CDs, your new CDs, your homemade mixtapes, the whole nine yards. You can even listen wirelessly thanks to onboard Bluetooth. It's got a decent battery life that can last you up to six hours, and it uses a USB-C to recharge. We usually have one of those on hand.

The smell of vinyl seats baking in the summer sun, the crackle of AM radio cutting through static, and dad's off-key humming as the family station wagon rolled down another endless stretch of motorway. If you grew up in the 60s or 70s, these sensory memories probably just transported you back to childhood road trips that seemed to last forever. Those journeys weren't just about getting from A to B. They were rolling classrooms where we learned geography from road signs,

Last year saw the highest vinyl record sales since 1984, signaling a strong desire among music enthusiasts to return to a simpler time of physical media. Even cassette tapes are making a comeback, with major artists including Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift releasing their material on the iconic plastic, four-inch audio reels. Now, self-described "party slam" metal band Party Cannon is taking the nostalgia play - often framed as an act of defiance against greedy and AI-slop-infested streaming platforms - to a new level.

Cali indiepop greats Rocketship are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their 1996 debut album A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness by giving it its first vinyl pressing since the original release. This is much needed as original copies fetch for over $200 in the secondary market. It's out March 20 via Slumberland and you can preorder it here. The album, which mixed sugary melodies and jangly guitars with shoegaze atmosphere and krautrock drone, sounds pretty fresh in 2026 and you can listen below.

For this time around, however, the concept player here stays within the audio listening gear domain; nonetheless, has clear signs of a TE-inspired design. The retro Bluetooth player is a music accessory that's reminiscent of the classic cassette tape player design, but on the inside, it's a modern music player that plays music wired or wireless. The aesthetics are purely for arousing the nostalgic feel of listening to music on a cassette player, while the audio is digitally played via a DAC for high-resolution output.

"When I read the fine print, it was 'an experience with REO Speedwagon's music.' It's none of the original members," Fletcher recalls. "I don't want to promote the show unless it's the real thing. I don't know why you would want to see that. It's just a cover band. To me, that's a little bit strange." He adds, with a sigh, "If there are no original members, who cares?"

There isn't one songwriter, and so the flavour of the band is always going to change, says Dave Vanian, reflecting on 50 years of the group of which he has been the sole constant member, the Damned. Captain Sensible is a great fan of syrupy pop music and prog and glam rock. So his writing is very poppy, melodic and quite wonderful.

Listening to music has mostly collapsed into phones and streaming apps, buried between notifications and multitasking. Some people still crave a single-purpose device that treats listening as the main event, not background noise. The MP-1 is an independent concept study that asks what a modern Walkman could look like if it borrowed Teenage Engineering's design language, without being affiliated with the company or trying to become an official product at all.

Fresh off a trek with the B-52's late last year, the band announced a West Coast run aptly titled the Mutate, Don't Stagnate tour, and has now filled out its 2026 schedule with a batch of June dates in Eastern North America. All those shows will take place ahead of Devo's remaining Cosmic De-Evolution Tour gigs with the B-52's, in England.