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Georgy Maksimovich pointed me to this article in Russian: https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2026/05/25/antisovetskie-filosofskie-kontratseptsii
David J. Gunkel «Person, Thing, Robot: A Moral and Legal Ontology for the 21st Century and Beyond» (MIT, 2023) Link:…
Giovanni Molteni Tagliabue (Italy) Rationalized and Extended Democracy – The REDemo Project. Foreword by Gilberto Corbellini. Firenze University Press 2023.…
Porphyry of Tyre on Theology and Theurgy (Harvard University Press & Center for the Study of World Religions, 2026) Permanently…
[…] Brian Leiter (Chicago), The American Bar Association Needs to Investigate Texas Tech Law School for Violating the First Amen…:…
[…] Spacetime does not exist – Leiter Reports, accessed May 23, 2026. Source […]
Saul Smilansky PARADOXICAL ETHICS (Oxford University Press, 2026). Available by Open Access. https://academic.oup.com/book/62721?login=false Paradoxical Ethics is a unique book, exploring…
…in my opinion, anyway. Glad to hear yours in the comments (click on the category, "Great Moments in Obscure Rock 'n' Roll" to see this year's selections). Here's mine (with apologies to The Nazz, Bloodrock, Poobah, and The Frost, who almost made it):
Hawkwind, "Mirror of Illusion," 1970
Fat Mattress, "Black Sheep of the Family," 1969
Freedom's Children, "That Did It," 1971
While Hawkwind can be brilliant at times, they off as derivative of Pavement.
About every other week I expect you to choose Eugene Chadbourne's masterpiece "Today's Gun Permits" from /Jesse Helms Busted with Pornography/ (rerecorded for /Texas Sessions vol. 2/) because of its timeliness. I wish I were more optimistic than I am that 2019 will present fewer occasions for you to choose it.
Chadbourne is one-of-a-kind! I can think of two great moments this year. One isn't obscure or rock 'n' roll, and the other might actually have come to my attention last year. The first is Keith Jarrett's traversal on ECM of the Shostakovich Preludes & Fugues (https://binged.it/2s1QpgE). The other is the Philly punk band S-21, who issued 7" records in 2016 (https://youtu.be/qkKAwQaDHNQ) and 2017 (https://youtu.be/sjo-tbGUKNw) before disbanding.
I loved the inclusion of Hawkwind, but think there are much better albums than "Mirror of Illusion." The three best in my view are:
Doremi Faso Latido (1972)
Hall of the Mountain Grill (1974)
Warrior on the Edge of Time (1975)
And of course, the late, great, Lemmy, who gave them their only hit, "Silver Machine," went on to form the mighty Motorhead.
Robert Calvert era Hawkwind was pretty solid, too. Space Ritual (1973) is a classic live jam. Saw them at the Starwood in LA for the Quark, Strangeness & Charm tour in 1977. In London the year before, I made a pilgrimage to the actual Mountain Grill.
Seventies progressive rock was my gateway to Hawkwind. Brian's tastes run more toward Sixties blues-based rock 'n' roll. Have to credit the band for delivering a little bit of something for everybody!
Dean: Agreed on Space Ritual. One of the great live albums.
I never thought Hawkwind sat very comfortably in the progressive rock category. They sound more like Krautrock bands like Amon Duul and even Gong than they do like Yes, ELP, or Genesis. People compared them to Pink Floyd, but I really don't see the resemblance.
Point taken, Daniel. I tend to use "progressive rock" loosely to encompass not only the British pantheon but, for instance, Krautrock, Canterbury sound, even fusion, such as Passport and Gary Boyle's Isotope. (Now there's a relatively obscure rock band due a revival!) But Hawkwind's Charisma records definitely incorporate a prog vibe, including heavy layers of synthesizers, albeit without the show-off virtuosity of Wakeman or Emerson. Through it all, though, Hawkwind stayed true to the chugging distorted guitar sound that inspired "stoner rock" bands of more recent years.
P.S. Since we have deviated somewhat from the strict topic of the post, I'll note that Space Ritual, and perhaps even earlier Hawkwind albums, does sound something like very early Pink Floyd, but not the hybrid blues/pop/prog of, say, Meddle and beyond.
Dean: Last thing on this. Hawkwind was a huge influence on Monster Magnet, who are one of the core Stoner Rock bands.
I wish there was an efficient way to search Leiter Reports, so I could just read all the weekly music entries and draw a list to answer Brian's initial question.
I should add that I think these weekly entries are one of the most unique things about Leiter Reports, and I enjoy them tremendously.
If you click on the "Great Moments in Obscure Rock 'n' Roll" category link, you can then scroll through them all.
Brian, thank you, I'm afraid I'm somewhat technically challenged.
Here are my favorite 5 (in no particular order):
The Nazz, “Open My Eyes”
Flamin’ Groovies, “Headin’ for the Texas Border”
Bloodrock, “Lucky in the Morning.”
Budgie, “Breadfan.”
Toad, "Vampires."
Another way to search Leiter Reports (or virtually any other publicly accessible site) when tagging (e.g., "Great Moments…") doesn't do the trick is to use Google (and even some other search engines) and the site: operator. For instance, if you want to find all the Leiter Reports entries that mention Stanley Cavell, search:
cavell site:leiterreports.typepad.com
The search engine will produce results located only at that site/domain.
Class dismissed.
What the hell happened to your weekly classical selections?!
Fair question. After a couple of months, I realized I wasn't adding much value for those interested in classical music, since my tastes there are more conventional, running towards mostly symphonies by the usual suspects (Beethoven, Brahms, Prokofiev, to a lesser extent Mozart), so I decided to stop.
Loved Hawkwind when I was younger *Warrior on the Edge of Time* (the last LP to feature Lemmy on bass & occasional vocals) was my favorite. Haven't kept up with them, though.
If you like 70s progressive rock & are in a mood to take a chance on a truly neglected group that deserved far more attention than they ever received in the English-speaking world, which to the best of my knowledge was zero, try Omega (from Budapest, Hungary: they were & are that country's most successful working band!). Start here:
A bit of a lengthy listen, & the first several tracks are sung in Hungarian, but what a variety of moods, & it's almost like Janos Kóbor's voice is another instrument added to the mix. Not a bad track here, again IMHO! The group has something like 18 albums, not counting collections & live stuff.
Hawkwind got me through a good half a year of graduate school (unsurprisingly, around the same time I was into early Pink Floyd).
At one point I was going to try and sneak a footnote to Hawkwind into my dissertation, but decided against it.
@ Prof. Leiter:
Understood (re classical music). Thanks for answering my question.
Of course, I'm still waiting for Bach, the "Fifth Evangelist," to convert you.
I will cue him up pronto! I do like Bach! I used to listen to the Brandenburg concerti endlessly when I was younger.
Likewise! Great minds… (although I'm not a philosopher).
Regardless of your antipathy towards the Christian religion, you must listen to the Mass in B-minor, if you've never heard it. Glorious and magnificent.
Of course, you can say that about 1000 works by Bach.
Thanks, a long time since I listened to that. Of course, religion, and Christianity in particular, has inspired much of the world's great art, architecture, poetry, literature and music.
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