While they only had two big hits, the Beau Brummels were one of the most important and underrated American groups of the 1960s. They were the first U.S. unit of any sort to successfully respond to the British Invasion. They were arguably the first folk-rock group, even predating the Byrds, and also anticipated some key elements of the San Francisco psychedelic sound with their soaring harmonies and exuberant melodies. Before they finally reached the end of the string, they were also among the first bands to record country-rock in the late '60s.

Trick Or Treat are certainly a crazy bunch of guys… while they are an absolute and super-tight Power Metal band, at the same time they like to share some fun with their audience. Probably this is why everybody loves them!

Morgana Lefay remains to this day, a hidden gem of a band in the heap of turds that often over run what is called power metal these days. With super heavy riffs, raspy powerful vocals and shredding solos they are paralleled by few. This album, The Secret Doctrine, is the third from the band and shows them improving on their sound but running long on ideas in the end. Starting with another doomy mid-paced opener in "Rooms of Sleep" the album doesn't light a fire to begin with but begins at a high level regardless. Much like their debut the album has it's ups and downs but here we find more highlights along the way.

Compared to the gargantuan Live/1975-85, 2001's Live in New York City seems like the very definition of restraint, but consider this – not only does it span two discs, it leaves out a considerable portion of the set list from the show and thereby the set list of Springsteen's celebrated 2000 reunion with the E Street Band. Some critics complained that this record was little more than a tie-in to the HBO special of the same name, but even if that's true, the record would have merit since it illustrates exactly why this group should never have parted ways. In a sense, even if this is the third live album in Springsteen's catalog, it's the first that attempts to replicate the feeling of an evening out with the E Street Band (the Live/1975-85 box tried too hard to be an ultimate experience; MTV Plugged captured a transitional phase).

Cheap Thrills, the major-label debut of Janis Joplin, was one of the most eagerly anticipated, and one of the most successful, albums of 1968. Joplin and her band Big Brother & the Holding Company had earned extensive press notice ever since they played the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, but for a year after that their only recorded work was a poorly produced, self-titled album that they'd done early in their history for Mainstream Records; and it took the band and the best legal minds at Columbia Records seven months to extricate them from their Mainstream contract, so that they could sign with Columbia…