Ian Hunter wrote years ago that "...Rock and Roll's a loser's game, it mesmerizes and I can't explain the reasons for the sights and for the sounds. The greasepaint still sticks to my face, so what the hell, I can't erase the Rock 'n Roll feelin' from my mind." That came from "The Ballad of Mott the Hoople" off of their classic Mott album.

Those lyrics hold true as much today as they did back then, perhaps even more. Rock and Roll is little more than a game these days. Sure, there's a lot of great practitioners out there, to be sure. I ceaselessly hunt them down. But in so doing I despair because some these bands will not be here 5 years from now. Why? Getting to be no money in it anymore. I remember reading stories of Aerosmith living in squalor as they gigged, waiting for that big break, which eventually came. And those stories of Guns and Roses...well. Recently, I read that Kele Okereke, of Bloc Party, said that they will not be making another album. I remember Coldplay saying the same thing. While Coldplay seems to be doing ok monetarily, I'm sure many are not. That's a sad situation. It's sad that the times do not create many wealthy bands any more, and sad that the ideal and love of Rock 'n Roll does not prompt many to 'live how they may' to make it...like Aerosmith, and GnR.

While I'm at it, there used to be a band that I had a lot of respect for...The Music. Now, no noise anywhere. If they are still doing it after three albums, I'd be surprised. But I miss them. Like I'll miss Bloc Party.

"...But still I feel, somehow, we let you down. We went off somewhere on the way and now I see we have to pay, the Rock 'n Roll circus is in town..."

I'm posting the press issue on the upcoming Kraftwerk remasters below:

Kraftwerk 

12345678 THE CATALOGUE
FOUR DECADES OF MASTERWORKS
COMPILED AS A CD BOXSET
SELECT CD, VINYL & DIGITAL RELEASES TO ACCOMPANY 

KRAFTWERK: Electro Pioneers, living legends and globally revered masters of electronic sound, celebrate the 35th anniversary of their landmark 1974 hit ‘Autobahn’ by releasing a special collector’s CD boxset featuring remastered versions of eight astounding albums on October 6th, 2009. Rolling back musical barriers with every forward-thinking phase of their career, Dusseldorf's Zen masters of electronic minimalism laid the foundations for four decades of computerised pop and dance music. By chain reaction and mutation, they have influenced generations of artists in all genres, mapping musical futures yet to come. From Bowie to Daft Punk, Aphex Twin to Portishead, Dr Dre to LCD Soundsystem, and almost everyone in between, the mark of Kraftwerk is endless, endless.

In 2009 Kraftwerk have upgraded their Kling Klang masters with the latest studio technology and these eight magnificent recordings still sound like nothing else in the history of music. Kraftwerk are unique, pristine, profound and beautiful. Decades may pass, but their streamlined synthetic symphonies stand outside time, as fresh as tomorrow, transcendent and sublime.

12345678 The Catalogue will be released across the following formats:

• CD Boxset containing 8 x CDs in ‘mini-vinyl’ card wallet packaging, plus individual large format booklets.

Due to licensing restrictions in the U.S., only five of the eight albums will be released as separate CD editions: Autobahn, Radio-Activity, Trans Europe Express, The Man Machine and Tour De France (2003). As a result, the only way for fans to own the entire catalogue on CD is to purchase the Box Set.

• 5 x individual CDs in special O-card slipcases featuring newly expanded artwork, including many previously unseen images, all of which have been reproduced to the highest technical standards

• 5 x individual heavyweight vinyl LPs with large format booklets

• Digital downloads

12345678 THE CATALOGUE

AUTOBAHN (1974)

With its iconic Emil Schult sleeve, Kraftwerk release their international breakthrough album. The symphonic title track, an epic ode to the joys of motorway travel, wraps a mesmerising motorik rhythm around a sampled collage of car horns, engine noise, whirring tyres and radio crackle. In edited form, it becomes a revolutionary hit single around the world.

Elsewhere, in wordless industrial folk music, the band reveal both their light and dark sides – ‘Mitternacht’ is all creeping midnight shadows, while ‘Morgenspaziergang’ is fresh with morning dew and birdsong. Two versions of ‘Kometenmelodie’, one a starkly gothic prowl, the other a sunny electro boogie, provide further instrumental sound paintings. Pure and strong and bold, Kraftwerk compose cinema for the ears. The pop world falls in love with them.

RADIO-ACTIVITY (1975)

Kraftwerk embrace the atomic age with mixed emotions. Surfing on sine waves, scanning the stratosphere for stray radio signals, they plug themselves into a buzzing grid of energy and communication. From the stately eco-angst anthem ‘Radioactivity’ to the synthetic Gregorian chants of ‘Radio Stars’ and the melancholy machine processional of ‘Ohm Sweet Ohm’, a sombre but engrossing monumentalism dominates.

With heavily processed vocals in both German and English, Kraftwerk go global with depth and majesty. If factories and power stations are the new cathedrals, they write liturgies for a new industrial epoch.

TRANS EUROPE EXPRESS (1977)

Kraftwerk celebrate Europe's romantic past and shimmering future with a glistening panorama of elegance and decadence, travel and technology. The infinite vistas of ‘EuropeEndless’ and ‘Endless Endless’ bookend the album, which includes the unsettling Kafka-esque fable ‘The Hall Of Mirrors’ and the hilarious ‘Showroom Dummies’ - Kraftwerk's elegantly ironic reply to critiques of their deadpan manner.

But it is the streamlined rhythmic locomotive of ‘Trans Europe Express’ which dominates with its doppler-effect melodic swerves and hypnotic, pneumatic, piston-pumping rhythm. Along with its sister track, ‘Metal On Metal’ which New York DJ Afrika Bambaataa would re-construct five years later for his own seminal ‘Planet Rock’, this milestone in avant-pop modernism later becomes a crucial influence on the early pioneers of hip-hop & sampling, electro and industrial music. Poetry in motion.

THE MAN MACHINE (1978)

A bold new look, sound and concept for Kraftwerk. Over supple processed rhythms which predate the rise of European techno and trance, they address automation and alienation, space travel and engineering, the seductive allure of urban landscapes and the vacant glamour of celebrity. Clipped and funky, ‘The Robots’ adds another dimension to Kraftwerk's ultra-dry sense of humour. Behind its intoxicating melodic pulse, ‘The Model’ is a highly prophetic satire on the beauty industry, so ahead of its time that it only becomes a UK chart-topper by accident three years later. And ‘Neon Lights’ is Kraftwerk's most achingly romantic song to date, a sci-fi lullaby for cities at twilight. Pure magic.

COMPUTER WORLD (1981)

Kraftwerk beam themselves into the future by writing about home computers, online dating and globalised electronic surveillance years before these phenomena truly come into being. A journey into the bright hopes and dark fears of the booming microchip revolution, ‘Computer World’ is a serenely beautiful and almost seamless collage of sensual melodies and liquid beatscapes. Tracks like ‘Numbers’ and ‘Pocket Calculator’, with their weightless bleeps and elastic beats, predict the silky rhythms of Chicago house and inspire a generation of Detroit techno artists. Kraftwerk's fanfare for the silicon age still sounds ageless, timeless and throbbing with invention.

TECHNO POP (1986)

Kraftwerk return from five years of silence to reclaim their throne as leaders of a machine-pop revolution that they themselves began over a decade before. Their ‘Techno Pop’ album, first released under the name ‘Electric Café’ but now restored to its originally intended title, provides a 360-degree overview of a multi-lingual, multi-channel, musically diverse global village.

From the block-rocking beats of ‘Boing Boom Tschack’ to the electronic funk and computer animation of ‘Musique Non Stop’, Kraftwerk soar into the digital age. Their first excursion into digital recording finds both beauty and unease in a polyglot world of permanent media overload. Once again, Dusseldorf’s test pilots of the musical future effortlessly break new ground.

THE MIX (1991)

Kraftwerk's first fully digital album confirmed their clubland credentials and reworked 11 of their best-loved tunes for a new generation. Painstakingly reconstructed and sequenced in the band's Kling Klang studio, new versions of tracks like ‘The Robots’, ‘Trans Europe Express’ and ‘Home Computer’ now feature more funky rhythms and cleaned-up, liquid-crystal sounds.. A stark warning about pollution at Sellafield is added to the glistening overhaul of ‘Radioactivity’, sparking a war of words with British Nuclear Fuels. But most of all, ‘The Mix’ is a career-spanning collection of legendary electro anthems and a classy acknowledgment of the two-way traffic between Kraftwerk and club culture.

TOUR DE FRANCE (2003)

The year 2003 marked the centenary of the Tour de France, the conceptual starting line for Kraftwerk's first album for over a decade. Although it features an immaculate new version of a 20-year-old former single, the exquisitely graceful ‘Tour de France’, pop nostalgia is not on the menu. From the chunky cyber-funk of ‘Vitamin’ to the restless metallic shimmers of ‘Aéro Dynamik’, this is emphatically the sound of 21st century techno visionaries.

We have several reviews for you today. The first is the recenter reissue of In Session for Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan, written by Douglas Bice. Mark Squirek has written a lengthy, in-depth review of the latest album by Colin Hay (Men at Work) called American Sunshine. I have turned in a review of Some Kind of Salvation by The Features as released on Kings of Leon's label, Bug Music. Dig in.

See you on Monday.

Round 22 of Great Album Covers:

Mike D.- Here's another album cover I always liked that I didn't see mentioned on the site: Ghost In The Machine by The Police. Years before I really became a Police fan, I thought that cover was awesome - I guess it was the whole "digital readout gone wrong" look - and when I realized that it was supposed to be Sting, Andy and Stewart's faces...well, my 16-year-old mind was blown. :

and Keith F. - For me 'Pink Floyd' 'Atom Heart Mother' perfectly encapsulates not just the content of the album but the mood at the time it was recorded, it gets my Album cover of all time vote. :

and Mosley H. - I vote for: Poco – Legend. A bit of trivia – that cover was drawn by Phil Hartman (yes, THAT Phil Hartman) as was the cover of America – Greatest Hits:

Atlantic Records will compile and release a Limited Edition 8CD VA collection called Atlantic Records: The Time Capsule. This Box is scheduled for November 3 and will retail for $199.98. The set contains 130 songs from 6 decades of collected music along with an included 128-page book. The set will also include one 7" vinyl single, along with memorabilia like backstage pass, handbills, ticket stubs, and posters. Each Box will be numbered. This set was originally planned for August 3.

Roadrunner Records will release Scars and Souvenirs by Theory of a Deadman in CD/DVD Special Edition form, both PA and Edited. Scheduled for October 20.

Christmas sneaks in again with the announcement of a Sandi Patti CD/DVD Special Edition of Sandi Patti Christmas - Live, which is slated for October 20.

Fueled by Ramen Records will release On Your Side by A Rocket to the Moon, planned for October 13.

Warner Brothers has two versions of Embryonic by The Flaming Lips, scheduled for October 13. It will issue on Cd and in a Limited Edition 2CD/DVD set.

Razor & Tie will release Sing Me Home by Joan Baez on October 13. They will also release This Christmas from Michael McDonald on September 29.

Jive Records plan Sorry For Partyin' from Bowling for Soup on October 13 while Columbia plans Slice from Five For Fightingalso on October 13.

Watch for an as-yet-unnamed Michael Bublé album scheduled for October 13 from Reprise Records.

Epic Records plan She Wolf by Shakira on October 6.

Legacy will add Dreams Are Nothin' More Than Wishes, a David Cassidy album (?) as a DD format scheduled for September 1.

Legacy Recordings will also release a DD of Ghost Riders from The Outlaws on August 25.

Sony Classical will issue At Home With Friends, a collaborative album with Various Artists and Joshua Bell. This is on the calendar for September 29.

Warner Brothers will release a CD and an LP for Out of Ashes from Dead by Sunrise. These discs will arrive on October 13.

We get a new Kris Kristofferson album on September 29 called Closer to the Bone. It's being released by New West Records and its something we're very excited about.

If you ever liked Echo and the Bunnymen, Siouxie and the Banshees, and/or killing Joke, then we have a new discovery for you. The Opposite Sex from DC has returned with an EP that juice those of you who appreciate good talent and that draws influence from the music that you loved in the past.

Their new (09/01) EP, Live + Burn follows their Violent Heartstrings from 2007 with more great music. I'll be surprised if you DON'T like 'em. To get you started, they are gifitng you with a free downloadable MP3 from the EP, "Frozen Heart, Frozen Mind."

They can be sampled further at their MySpace, Facebook, and LastFM. You can even follow 'em on Twitter.

Nettwerk Records will digitally release the 4-track EP, named Great Escape, by UK's The Rifles, whom Paul Weller of The Jam has gushed about, on July 28. Later in the year, Nettwerk will release their full-length album, which we'll be sure to cover. Three tracks found on this release will NOT be found on the band's upcoming album. Check 'em out at Facebook, and/or MySpace, and/or their official site.