Tunetribe

It was 50 years ago that Jerry Garcia and co released the debut Grateful Dead album and brought San Francisco counterculture to the world. To celebrate Rhino's lavish re-issue of it, we travelled all the way to Wales to talk to psych-pop affcionado, Pooh Sticks mainman and Welsh cultural czar Huw Williams. Don't take the brown acid, man!

Orginally released in 1986, Skylarking is seen by many as XTC's finest hour. But let's face it, even if we were talking about one of the band's lesser works this podcast would be a must because XTC main man Andy Partridge graced us with a good couple of hour of his time. He spills the beans on everything from Todd Rundgren, stagefright, Colin Moudling and looking like Napoleon Dynamite at school. He even performs an inpromptu song for us! If you're an XTC fan, this is the motherload!

The complete 1960s series of albums by masters of rock whimsey The Kinks are now out on 180g vinyl in a sumptuous box set. Featuring all albums from 1964's Kinks to 1969's Arthur plus a two disc 'black' album of singles and b sides, the box is given an exclusive once-over by Snapper Music's king of mega-boxes, Ian Crockett. Is he going to be listening to it all of the day and all of the night? Only one way to find out!

What a work rate! Hot off the back of the amazing success of 2015's Get Weird, Little Mix are back with fourth album Glory Days. Guardian writer Hannah Verdier decides whether to give it a Salute whilst salivating over three juicy slices of alt pop meistro Beck's back catalogue. PLUS: All your Christmas music tips!

"I know my obituary has already been written, " said Lou Reed in the 1990s, "and it starts out, 'Doot, di-doot, di-doot...'" But the ex-Velvet Underground singer was so much more 'Walk On The Wild Side'. Now finally, his first 17 albums are back out - from underachieving self-titled debut, through classics like Berlin and Coney Island Baby to the extreme noise of Metal Machine Music right up to 1986's Mistrial. But not only this, they are housed in one magnificent set along with a hardback book, posters and flyers. Guardian writer Jon Dennis braves this enormous black box of Reed and tries to remain unscathed.

Back in 1997 you couldn't escape Richard Ashcroft bumping into pedestrians whilst crooning Bittersweet Symphony: The Verve were the rightful heirs to Oasis' throne. Fast forward almost 20 years and what do their three albums sound like now? Label boss and writer David Laurie assesses A Storm in Heaven, A Northern Soul and Urban Hymns and asks: do the drugs still work?

Green Day's twelfth album Revolution Radio and Kings Of Leon's seventh WALLS are both being hailed as returns to form. Whilst Green Day top the US and UK charts, they are likely to be pipped this week by Kings of Leon. Are these records any good? We asked Guardian writer Hannah Verdier to cast her critical ears over them both.

This Time It's Personal is the first collaboration between ex Stranglers singer Hugh Cornwall and Mancunian poet John Cooper Clarke. Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner used one of Clarke's poems on AM and now Clarke returns the favour by singing for the first time! But what does Emmy Award winning punk fan David Quantick make of it all?

Rolling Stones In Mono claims to be the "full studio account of that first decade of history and mayhem, newly remastered with unprecedented fidelity and revelatory detail."* Containing all the albums both US and UK versions right up until 1969's barnstorming Let It Bleed, it's a must have for all Stones fans. Does Snapper Music box set compiler and Stones collector Ian Crockett agree? *From David Fricke's liner notes.

Back at the beginning of the millennium, an Australian bunch of vinyl crate diggers used their so called plunderphonics to make a record called Since I Left You, which conquered charts all over the world. Since then... well, mainly silence. Until now. Sixteeen years on and their second album, Wildflower, is finally with us. Tunetribe's head honcho, William Haighton,was so impressed with it that he agreed to come on to the podcast and tell us why it was worth the wait!

Self-made post punk pirate Adam Ant was the nation's biggest and brightest star in the early 80's, influencing Boy George, Wham! and everything that followed. Now Adam & The Ants' hit-packed and timeless Kings Of The Wild Frontier is re-released in a lavish box it's time to access the band and ask if they still make sense in 2016. And who better to do this than Tunetribe's resident early 80s expert David Laurie. You can buy David's book about music in the early eighties, Dare, here http://www.abookcalleddare.com/#!about/c10fk

Rising star and all round legend Will Poulter has found time to come into Tunetribe and chat with old friend and first time podcast presenter Max. They talk Grime, latest projects and slapping bums at Glasto!

It's 'difficult' second album time for Michael Kiwanuka. Love & Hate, the Danger Mouse-produced follow-up to his top ten debut Home Again, took a while to get right. Was it worth it? Movie music supervisor Kle Savage (who's worked with Kiwanuka) gives us the lowdown.

This week, we grabbed BBC 6Music legend Steve Lamacq from up the road and bundled him into our studio. He gave us the most informed opinion we've heard yet of alt rock mega-sellers Catfish And The Bottlemen's latest album The Ride. After all, he was the man who first discovered them…

'Jet', 'Live And Let Die', 'Mull Of Kintyre'... If you love the Beatles but you're not sure where to start with the solo stuff, then Pure McCartney might be for you. A four vinyl box or CD set chosen by Sir Paul himself, it covers all the titles you'd expect plus some interesting surprises. Our regular powerpop expert, William Higham tell us whether it gets his Macca thumbs-up.

Brian Wilson famously described his troubled masterpiece Smile as a 'teenage symphony to God', which could equally apply to its predecessor Pet Sounds. Containing such classics as God Only Knows, Wouldn't It Be Nice and Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder), it's an essential album for every music fan. Last year publisher Mal Peachey dropped by and talked about his forthcoming book on Brian Wilson so here's another chance to listen to it on Pet Sounds' 50th anniversary.

ABC's Lexicon Of Love remains one of the all time classic albums containing four stonking hits, 'Poison Arrow', 'Tears Are Not Enough', 'The Look Of Love' and 'All Of My Heart'. Now 34 years later, mainman Martin Fry releases a follow-up, Lexicon Of Love II. Can it live up to the expectation? Podcast regular and 80s-obsessive David Laurie has listened to it and reveals all. Plus we discuss those other 80s heroes Dexys, who are about to release the deeply felt Let The Record Show: Dexys Do Irish and Country Soul.

Noel 'Razor' Smith never learned to read or write; he was too busy robbing in South London. He was also listening to 1950s rock 'n' roll and making sure he carried a razor in his teddy boy drapes. Then he taught himself to write in solitary confinement and ending up publishing 7 books! We recommend the first, A Few Kind Words And A Loaded Gun.At the same time in the same area of London, Ray Gange was discovering punk rock. He ended up starring in Rude Boy, the legendary documentary about The Clash. On punk's 40th anniversary, we invited both of them in to discuss their very different, but strangely similar, pasts of punk and ted.

With the release of her sixth album, Lemonade, Beyoncé became the first act in chart history to have all her releases enter the charts at number one. And it's possibly her best record yet. There was no big fanfare for Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool, the release of which was given sudden announcement on a Sunday night and won't be on delicious double vinyl until June. Likewise, The Stone Roses new release was being rumoured for years until suddenly last week we got new single 'All For One'. Exciting times for music fans but what do top music men Saul Galpern (Nude Records; Suede; Simply Red) and Charlie Pinder (Travis, Belle And Sebastian, Reverb Music Publishing) make of it all?

Beatles? Bob Marley, Bowie? And that's just some of the Bs! With so many music box sets to choose from, it's difficult to know where to start. We invited Snapper Music's Ian Crockett, a man who's put together some classic box sets, to tell us when separates the men from the boys.