In 1982, the members of Judas Priest hunkered down in two tropical settings—Ibiza, Spain and Orlando, Florida—and created a monolith: “Screaming for Vengeance” became the band’s most successful album and an all-time fan favorite; easily crossing the two sides of the band—the screaming doomsayers and the good-time hard rockers. It was the first full album to appear as Rock Band DLC, and your reactions told us we made the right choice.

Now on tour with four-fifths of the “Screaming” lineup, Judas Priest is still playing many of its tracks on tour. But the venerable metallists are also getting ambitious this year: Their latest release “Nostradamus” is nothing less than a two-CD rock opera, which they’re also featuring onstage. We caught up with two of the band’s prime movers, guitarist Glenn Tipton and lead singer Rob Halford, who proved to be good blokes with a lot of good memories. We even got Halford to reveal where he found those stage outfits he wore in the 80’s.

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Alternative rock without “Doolittle”? We wouldn’t even want to imagine it. And heck, we wouldn’t want to imagine Rock Band without it either. So we’re pleased t o announce the full-album DLC of the Pixies—a band that changed the landscape with its razor guitars, insanely hummable tunes and a healthy dose of surrealism. And as we’re fond of pointing out, a band that played its first gig about four blocks from our office.

Pixies mastermind Frank Black (then of course known as Black Francis) isn’t much for looking back, preferring to talk about what he’s up to now (his new solo disc, SVN FNGRS, is a rocker that Pixies fans should check out).But for us he made an exception, and this two-part interview sheds plenty of light about the creation of “Doolittle,” and even drops a hint about more Pixies activity to come.

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