A return-to-form triumph for Deep Purple, and a reunion of the crunchy Raw Power-era edition of Iggy and the Stooges tops this heavy-rocking version of New Music Monday.

As he awaits the April 30, 2013 release of his first solo album, The Way Life Goes, Cinderella frontman Tom Keifer took some time out of his latest tour to discuss some of our favorite tunes off the new record and some Cinderella classics

Tom Keifer has seen the view from some of the highest mountaintops in the music business and had to claw his way out of some of the deepest pits. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Keifer fronted hard rockers turned blues rockers Cinderella.

A pair of titanic jazz reissues captivated us into this New Music Monday, as ECM released box sets focusing on the work of Paul Motian and Charles Lloyd.

After 1995′s Drift, Flotsam and Jetsam seemed to do just that — drift off the musical map — with a series of disappointing records and a couple of long hiatuses between records. Then came 2010′s The Cold.

A day after fans heard the first single from Black Sabbath’s upcoming 13 project, the band debuted a second song, “The End of the Beginning,” live in New Zealand.

After a very uneven first album with new singer Johnny Solinger and a second album that was full of jokey novelty tunes, I didn’t hold out much hope for the future of Skid Row. Until now.

A simmering new melding of Southern rock and R&B arrives with the new JJ Grey album, while the Replacements and Shuggie Otis — yeah, you read that right — return with their first new music in ages.

I think there’s something innate in music fans that drives them to want to make lists. And then, of course, to argue about those lists to the death. You don’t have to look any farther than the conversation on some of the Gimme Five entries here

OK. I’m a sucker for goofy musical comedy. The goofier the better. A larger than I’d like to admit part of my record collection is taken up by it. I have the full “Weird Al” Yankovic catalog.