Instead of strapping on my eyepatch and hoisting the Jolly Roger, I celebrated Talk Like a Pirate Day by taking in some of my favorite pirate songs.

So I was sitting at the kitchen table this morning, attempting to wipe the dust of sleep out of my droopy eyes while waiting for the five-minute coffee timer to go off.

Originally released as Humanary Stew: A Tribute to Alice Cooper on Deadline Records in 1998, this collection of covers has recently gotten a repackaging from Cleopatra Records with a few extra tunes

The new English beat combo King Mob comes tearing out on “Selene Selene,” quickly rejoining the fender-bending journey started during their previous tenures with the Sex Pistols, the Pretenders and the Sharks.

I didn’t really know much about Malcolm McLaren, except that he had some sort of fashion boutique called “Sex” and that he put the Sex Pistols together. A Rolling Stone article marking his death last year referred to him as a “Punk Renaissance Man.”

Spend enough time around rock music — or, at least, rock critics — and you’ll be convinced that any number of Seminal Works, Forgotten Gems and Timeless Standards are must-have items for your record collection. Even if they turn out to be, you know, retreads dressed up as brilliant pop redux (Gene Clark’s post-Byrds catalogue, many of Syd Barrett’s soloRead More