More unearthed material by Jimi Hendrix, this time from 1968-1969, is set to be released on March 5th. Titled People, Hell & Angels, the album will have 12 songs which were part of what was to be Hendrix’s grand creation, First Rays of the New Rising Sun, which never got released during his lifetime as the oft-considered all-time guitar player died in London, England in 1970.

The first single from the album, “Somewhere,” which wound up originally on a collection of outtakes entitled Crash Landing and released in 1975, was poorly edited and even doctored up to sound authentic. But now, that song, with Stephen Stills (of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young) and Buddy Miles on the backbeat, is in its full aural capacity, and it sounds as good as anything Hendrix did during his short but illustrious career.

Listen to the song here below.

Lots of sonic platters of joy are ready to be served up this holiday season, and what better gift to give someone than the universal appeal of music? During this festive time, when credit card debts mount up, layaway plans become way too unmanageable, and the stress of owing money takes charge over one’s soul and wallet as the new year turns, it’s still worth the feeling one gets when one sees someone’s eyes light up when they tear the wrapping paper off a gift, positively effused with sincere delight at its contents. We all still do it, we all get by, we grumble as the new year rolls in, but it’s all worth it; gifts are cool, no doubt, gifts never go out of style, and the end result of giving someone a gift makes it all worth it. Music was no exception this year. There were some great collections for one to gnaw on, collections which run every genre and will turn even the most hard hardened curmudgeon of a Scrooge into the softest teddy bear imaginable, even if it’s only for one holiday. My holiday box set picks are below, this one goes to eleven:

Today marks what would have been the 70th birthday of Jimi Hendrix, the pioneering guitar player who singlehandedly changed every conceivable facet, approach, and style that existed before he got his hands on the instrument, and once he did, he foraged a universe in which millions traveled to, in which, led by Hendrix, one could attempt to attack the guitar as he did with a frighteningly bold and original tackling to break every single convention that stood firmly lodged in place before him and inventing new ones for those to follow for now and forever.

The electric guitar was mainly a still new instrument by the time Jimi Hendrix first picked it up and discovered what it could do and there were still musical rules and regulations being invented as it went along. Hendrix took those rules and regulations and put them through a metaphorical sifter, found the diamonds in the rubble, and then blues fried them on a skillet. The result is (still) some of the most electrified and stunningly dazzling rock and roll ever put to tape.

All week, Amazon has been offering up Lightning Deals, limited quantities of various products for a discounted price for a 4-hour window of time, centered around the biggest shopping day of the year — Black Friday. You have to be on the lookout for these deals and once the item runs out, the sale is over. Meaning, if you see something on sale that you want, buy it immediately before it’s gone.

Amazon has released the Lightning Deal schedule and prices for Music CDs and Box Sets for Friday, November 25, starting at 5AM PST (that’s 8AM EST) and running through 9pm PST. See a sample of some of the Black Friday deals here below, along with more information on how these special deals work. You can visit the main Sale calendar page to see ALL the deals and the exact times they’ll be going up.

Here’s some of the items coming up on sale:

Jimi Hendrix: Winterland (5 CD Box Set)
$34.99

Best Of James Bond 50th Anniversary
$4.99

Sting: If On A Winter’s Night…
$4.99

August 12th was Vinyl Record Day, marked by the date Edison invented the phonograph in 1877, so it’s become a day to celebrate the old time traditions of sonic yesteryear, and spin your favorite tunes on those old 33 1/3, 45, and 78 sized spherical objects made out of wax called “records.” And I’m here to give you my Top 12 favorite vinyl records of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, along with a bunch of honorable mentions, but before we get to that, let’s talk a little bit about this thing called “vinyl.”

Up until the mid 1980s, when CDs started to become the musical norm in how one listened to their music proper, records were the norm of the people; not just a communally popular way to hear songs, but it became a giant subculture of the fabric of life, a hobby, a key element in creating parties, in creating gatherings and get-togethers, a source of fun competition in who would have more records than whom and who would have the rare cool records, in essence, vinyl hoarding was a collector’s and layman’s dream for decades upon decades.

With its outer cardboard casings known as “sleeves,” bands and musicians of all musical genres were able to express themselves not only in the music they created, but by the art that was presented on the front and back covers, which spawned an entire new artistic medium in a sense. In a way, every day should still be a Vinyl Record Day in some regard, and as the way music is bought and downloaded these days, in binary coded “bitted and byted” digital forms, not only has the way of the vinyl passed in essence, but also all the visual accoutrements that came with it. It has become a relic of the past like a rotary telephone or a CB radio, a dinosaur’s regime, which ultimately is hence even a more urgent reason to preserve the memory and image of the record alive in the 21st century.