All of Phil's Daily Needle Drops

The Stills / Young Band released the album Long May You Run fifty years ago this week. It is an incredible album that got lost in the shuf

Clutch has a new record coming out in January 2027. The title track of the new album, Wasted Lands, is another straight up banger from the

It was recently announced that an album of unreleased music by the band Morphine is coming out in December. This, of course, led me to revis

This is some bonkers footage of the band Boston playing at Giants Stadium in 1979 (supporting their 2nd album Don't Look Back). The band e

Nirvana's Nevermind came out 35 years ago today. Popular music and culture were never the same. The music video and single for "Smells Lik

John Coltrane would be celebrating his 100th birthday today. One of my favorite Coltrane records is Ascension. A total classic in the worl

Between the original breakup of Soundgarden and the formation of Audioslave Chris Cornell released the solo album Euphoria Morning. The en

The music video for "Easy Lover" by Phil Collins and Philip Bailey is an all-time classic. Shot as a kind of "making of the video" style thi

It's hard to believe that in 1995 an album as wild and freewheeling as Ball-hog or Tugboat? was released on a major label. The record incl

Don Henley released "Dirty Laundry" on his 1982 record I Can't Stand Still. You'd think the song and video were written and recorded yeste

This classic video of the song "Everyday" by Dave Matthews Band always brings a smile to my face. How have you brought happiness to others t

In between the time John Mayer was a straight up pop singer and him joining Dead & Company he formed a jazz / blues trio with Steve Jordan o

The Supersuckers recorded "Rock N' Roll Records (Ain't Selling This Year)" 23 years ago. They still ain't sellin'

Neil Young wrote "Let's Roll", the definitive tribute to the events of September 11, 2001. Sorry, Toby Keith and Bruce Springsteen. Joining

Elvis Costello's 1991 album Mighty Like a Rose and especially "The Other Side of Summer" seems to get a bad rep. I don't know why. I love

"When the Coast is Clear" is another classic end-of-summer jam. This Mac McAnally penned tune was released on the underrated album *Floriday

Another Labor Day has come and gone. Which means it is officially the end of summer. Which means it is time to listen to this classic Dusty

The world could always use more joy. Isaiah Collier and his live band deliver the goods here. The entire Joy EP is worth hearing. "Everyth

Last night I saw Mike D. of the Beastie Boys perform a concert at a record store. He played a great set of songs from his new record *Thank

Here is some killer footage of early Weather Report (with bassist Miroslav Vitous) playing with an expanded ensemble including John Surman a

YHWH Nailgun released their new album on 4AD last week called Magazine. It is another wild ride of dissonant noise rock and post punk with

I was pleasantly surprised to find a new Dinosaur Jr. album in the list of new releases for today. There Near and the single "Several Got

RIP Dolly. The Trio record with Emmylou Harris and Linda Rondstadt is one of my favorites.

Henry Rollins has revived the Vengeance record label and the first release is the absolutely essential Gravest Gravy demos from The Cramps

In October of 1995, Blues Traveler played on Late Show with David Letterman. The huge hit single "Hook" had just been released a couple m

Jean-Luc Ponty is mostly known for his jazz fusion escapades, but his 1983 solo album Individual Choice is mostly solo synths and drum mac

This is an incredible performance by Jerry Cantrell of "Psychotic Break", the leadoff track from the epic double-album Degradation Trip.

Frank Beard passed away this week. Most of the articles I see mentioning his passing refer to Eliminator but Beard likely didn't play at a

The Hives recently returned with the aptly named The Hives Forever Forever The Hives. No frills. Just awesome pedal-to-the-metal alternati

Violet Grohl's debut album, Be Sweet to Me, has been in heavy rotation in Plencner Labs HQ since its release. The first song, "THUM", has

Doc Severinsen is best known for his 30 year run performing and conducting The Tonight Show band (retiring along with Johnny Carson in 1992)

Skip Heller's new project, Voodoo 5, is an incredible Exotica band following in the footsteps of Robert Drasnin. Here they cover the classic

Danny Gottlieb was the drummer in the first era of the Pat Metheny Group. His solo album Whirlwind, which came out a few years after he le

I have been a huge fan of records on the Wax Trax label since I was in junior high school. Front 242's Front By Front is one of the first

Superchunk is another one of those bands that should be bigger than they are. Especially since they have been putting out bangers non-stop s

Sometimes when I'm feeling down in the dumps, I remember that the song "Dog Police" exists and it instantly puts me in a better mode. Today

One of the funkiest grooves you'll ever hear is on the Michael McDonald song "I Keep Forgettin'" that he recorded soon after leaving The Doo

The Joe Walsh song "Analog Man" (off of the album with the same name) is a fine example of the cliche "the more things change, the more they

When Mike and the Moonpies changed their name to Silverada I was worried they would change their sound and sell out. I couldn't be more wron

As much as I love all of the eras / lineups of the band Death, I believe that the lineup on 1991's Human was the definitive one. Chuck Sch

I always thought "Find the River" was the best song on Automatic for the People. It might also be one of the best songs by R.E.M.

The Black Crowes were at their peak in 1992, having recently released The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. This version of "Remedy"

Dovetail Joint is one of those Chicago-based alternative rock bands from the 90s that should have been huge. I remember hearing "Level on th

Some days just calls for a lot of Rush. Today is one of those days. I always loved the A Show of Hands concert video. The entire band is c

Here Come the Warm Jets is the first solo album by Brian Eno after he left Roxy Music. I've been obsessing over it a lot this past month.

Along with David Hasselhoff's acting career, he has also been putting out music with mixed results (let's get serious: mostly bad results).

Todd Rundgren streamlined (if you could call it that) his band Utopia down to a 4-piece band in 1977. Trimming the extra synthesizers didn't

Do you want to hear Bill Bruford play some Simmons electronic drums with bass virtuoso Jeff Berlin and Japanese guitarist Kazumi Watanabe? O

L7 bassist Jennifer Finch passed away suddenly over the weekend at the young age of 59. I can't tell you how many times I listened to *Brick

Slayer's album Seasons in the Abyss came out in the fall of 1990 and "War Ensemble" was one of the singles. I remember I would look forwar

Urge Overkill's Saturation is my usual go-to when I want the best of 90s alternative rock at loud volume. Nevertheless, their next record

Imagine my surprise today when I saw in my feed that Napalm Death appeared in the latest episode of NPR's Tiny Desk Concert. Way cool! The

Hard to believe its been over two decades since TV on the Radio dropped "Staring at the Sun". This music video is the *Desperate Youth, Bloo

The Rolling Stones just put out a new record called Foreign Tongues. It is actually pretty good! I wouldn't say it is up there with classi

Power Tools was a very short lived power trio consisting of Bill Frisell (guitar), Melvin Gibbs (bass) and Ronald Shannon Jackson (drums). T

The Darkness has (not so quietly) been releasing awesome glam rock for nearly a quarter century now. Its hard to believe that after releasin

There's a lot to love about LL Cool J's classic video for "Going Back To Cali": The Rick Rubin and Martha Quinn cameos. The black and white

I frequently go back to this incredible performance by Steve Winwood of "Can't Find My Way Home" he recorded about 15 years ago. Performed s

The Robert Fripp String Quintet was a short lived group (existing from 1992-1993) that comprised of Fripp, stick player Trey Gunn and the Ca

In my humble opinion, "America the Beautiful" should be the United States National Anthem. It is a far superior song than "The Star Spangled

After Kyuss broke up singer John Garcia formed the short-lived band Slo-Burn. They basically only existed from 1996-1997 and put out one ama

The heat index in Baltimore is supposed to reach 110 degrees by the weekend. David Lee Roth said it best: "Goin' crazy...from the heat"! Thi

Soundgarden also put out a great song called 4th of July. A total sludge-grunge classic! This version from 2012 shows that Chris Cornell and

In 1997 the Blue Meanies released Full Throttle which contains the best song ever written about Independence Day in the United States. Thi

Faith No More recently announced that they are going on a reunion tour in 2027. This is, of course, exciting news. However, I don't believe

Earlier today independent radio station KEXP just dropped an incredible live video of Queens of the Stone Age playing in their studio. The b

Pierre Moerlen's version of the band Gong was less hippy space rock and more adventurous jazz fusion with heavy doses of percussion. Classic

The band Phil Collins assembled for his Seriously, Live! World Tour in 1990 is unbelievable. I love this version of "Inside Out" because i

Ministry was at their peak when they performed in Merrillville, Indiana in February 1990. Luckily it was recorded and released as the incred

Back in the early 2000s, I saw Ozric Tentacles a couple times. Both times this bonkers group called Star People opened. They played a wild m

Jon Spencer has a newish band (teaming up with Kendall Wind and Macky Bowman of The Bobby Lees) and a brand new record: *Songs of Personal L

I was talking with a friend last night about how early 2000s big beat music is kind of forgotten nowadays. Let's bring it back with Fatboy S

The Bottle Rockets were an amazing alternative country band that never really broke through to the mainstream, which is a shame. In a perfec

Chicago-based vibraphonist Joel Ross recently released a new record called Gospel Music that is fast becoming one of my favorite jazz reco

Saxophonist David Sanborn used to have a show on NBC called Sunday Night Music. This footage of Boz Skaggs' killer band (Marcus Miller, ba

Bonkers live footage of Frank Zappa playing the guitar solo from "Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch" in 1982 in St. Etienne, F

The video says "Mike and the Moonpies" but they have renamed themselves to Silverada. This video depicts their "Road Crew" they set up their

Astounding live footage of Billy Joel and his band (including drummer Liberty DeVitto "playing" a book!) singing "The Longest Time" in a loc

Here is some incredible footage of Canterbury Prog legends Hatfield and the North fresh after The Rotters Club came out. Ten minutes featu

When Ill Communication first came out, I loved the previous album Check Your Head so much I refused the new record because I thought it

The early Elvis Costello records are certified front-to-back bangers. I adore this video because of the high energy and vintage instruments

George Duke co-wrote this song with Frank Zappa that first appeared on Apostrophe('). Enjoy this incredible live version with George Duke

I heard this song on Sirius / XM's Underground Garage this weekend and was floored! Wild garage rock with a trombone that's heavily inspir

I absolutely love the video for this melancholy song by Beck. After puttering around a park looking solemn he turns his mood around by playi

Really cool fan-made video for my favorite song on OK Computer. "They'd think that I'd finally lost it completely" indeed.