This is a big week for Beach Boys freaks, with the release of the ginormous US Singles Collection Box collection (1962-65), a 16-CD limited edition set of early A & B sides, live and alternate takes, with a 48-page hardbound book of photos, all wrapped in a hotrod inspired box with wood, foam and foil inlay.

Two early, deeply weird Alice Cooper Band albums see the light of day anew with Rhino Encore's reissues of Pretties for You and Easy Action. This is the Alice we like to talk about on the Esotouric Where the Action Was rock history tour, hanging out at the Landmark Hotel getting his eyes did by Miss Christine of the GTOs. Also new from Rhino Encore, Warren Zevon's Mr. Bad Example, from 1991.

Collector's Choice issues a couple of mid-period albums from Arthur Lee's Love, Out Here (with the remake of "Signed D.C.") and False Start (with a Lee-Hendrix collaboration).

Then there's the Lydia Lunch video compedium Hysterie - 1978-2006, just the thing to celebrate this week's Teenage Jesus & the Jerks reunion in NYC.

I've contributed an essay called "Small World," on the suburban sociology of exotica music, to a new anthology from Time Out, 1000 Songs To Change Your Life.

This assignment was the pleasant side effect of lunching with editor Will Fulford-Jones on his recent research trip to L.A. for the new edition of the city guide. Ostensibly we met to fill him in on the various Esotouric bus adventures that Richard and I lead around the city, but I ended up being asked to contribute a variety of sidebars in the forthcoming L.A. guide (Bob Baker! Charles Fletcher Lummis! graveyards of East LA! weird desserts! secret gardens!), and this neat little essay, which conveniently coincided with writing (in collaboration with David Smay) the liner notes for a big bunch of Arthur Lyman reissues.

I don't pretend to be an expert on instrumental music, but I'm quite interested in the intersections between postwar American culture and imagined versions of the exotic, and all the sex/death associations that the tropics carried, and I like how this piece turned out.

Also included among the inventive, thematic essays in 1000 Songs To Change Your Life are Douglas Wolk on broken hearts, Dave Rimmer on "Gloomy Sunday," editor Fulford-Jones on home, Robert Forster on The Only Ones (too brief!), Chuck Eddy on Nashville's fascination with Mexicana, Michaelangelo Matos on non-bubblegum food-themed pop, Kimberly Chun on drag, Philip Sherburne on urban themes in electronic music, Sylvie Simmons reacting to Janet Reno's rah-rah Americana compilation, Bob Stanley on distinctively British sensibilities, Burt Bacharach on songwriting, Colin Irwin on murder ballads, Geoff Carter on film soundtracks, and a whole lot of genre hopping, thought provoking pop crit. There's also a truly stunning photo of Kris Kristofferson playing a Stratocaster, so peel an eye for it at your better bookseller.

Just released in the UK is Zombies and Beyond, compiling a mix of classic Zombies music with some solo Colin Blunstone dreaminess and a smattering of Argent. Then there's the rarities-packed Cat Stevens career spanning box set, with some unfortunate cover art, but there's inevitably some baggage where Cat's concerned. Such sweet, sweet early tunes, though...

Sure,
every time this year,
as temps and spirits begin to rise
and the time gets right for doing
something in the street,

we could So easily get
laid back and lost within the usual grooves
of those Beach Boys,
Jan and/or Dean,
Fantastic Baggys (!!!)
or even Los Nooney Rickett Four.

but,
If you’re ready for a brand new beat instead
all this summer long,

May I suggest you tune on, log in,
turn up and hang at least 10dB
right over there at
Gary Pig Gold dot com,

thanx to our very hot pals
dba Zuzula, that is.

Listen !!

Just released by Big Beat in the UK, Here's Where I Belong - The Best of the Dunhill Years 1965-1967, a long awaited compilation of Phil Sloan's two scarce mid 1960s Dunhill albums, plus singles. Included is the stunning "Karma," a song it's impossible to spin once.

Track Listing

Just released by 4 Men With Beards, vinyl reissues of several Velvet Underground records, including The Velvet Underground & Nico, White Light/White Heat and The Velvet Underground.