Album

Ten years ago, as Sonic Boom's new sleevenotes attest, he and Jason Pierce were "making hypno-monotony" and smoking a lot of grass. Spacemen 3 were a cult on the brink of brimming over, which soon happened with the spin-off of Pierce's Spiritualized. Their penultimate LP as a pairing was The Perfect Prescription, here stretched to a double with the addition of various demos and unreleased sessions. In two modes, hippie-trance riffery and hushed faux-religious reverence, it's love-it-or-hate it puritan-rock. The drugs, clearly, worked for them.

Punk compilation selected by Sniffin' Glue editor Mark Perry

Exclusive donations from the great and the good on behalf of Iraq's children

Russ Meyer meets The White Stripes

Brilliant futurist upgrade of the hip hop aesthetic

Second LP from Minneapolis native

Simmering sophomore outing from New York alt.country trio

Excellent post-punk-influenced vocal electronica

The 10 individual CDs from 2001's box set, documenting the rise of the Dead from folky beginnings to fully-fledged masters of the cosmos

While hanging out with calypso stars Mighty Sparrow and Lord Invader on the Trinidadian set of 1957's Fire Down Below, Mitchum hit on the idea of a cash-in album for Capitol execs eager to tap into the next big thing. Harry Belafonte aside, the craze didn't quite sweep, but old sourpuss' unlikely stab is commendable for its gusto, rum-cocktail swing and gentle innuendo (see "Tic Tic Tic"). Sinatra it ain't, but it sure beats Richard Harris.