Archive for August 14th, 2010
The Great Second Disc Pseudo-Hiatus
Just a quick note to our dear readers out there: from Sunday, August 15 to Thursday, August 26 I shall be taking a leave from my post at The Second Disc to go on vacation. However, I realize that reissues never sleep – so with that in mind you’ll be in the capable hands of Joe Marchese for the next two weeks or so. He’ll be providing you with daily news as well as his usual top-notch features (and there’s at least one big, previously-announced title that’s going to have some more information released in the next week, so you’re definitely going to want to stay tuned).
Before my vacation takes effect, I just want to take a moment to thank each and every one of our readers for their continued patronage. Since The Second Disc has started in January, our weekly traffic has expanded to about 6,000-7,000, with a grand total of more than 100,000 hits in that time. The continued readership – and respect for catalogue music – has been intensely encouraging. And rest assured – as the year goes on, we’ve got a lot of great stuff in store for you guys. You won’t regret it.
Enjoy Joe’s coverage for the next couple weeks, and I will be back shortly.
News Round-Up: Release Date Changes, Hip-o Select Releases and More
- A quick note that both Queensryche’s 20th anniversary reissue of Empire and Morrissey’s 20th anniversary reissue of Bona Drag – both from EMI – have been moved on the calendar. The latter will now street October 5 (the reissue of the “Everyday is Like Sunday” single will still street September 28) and the former will be released on September 28.
- MusicTAP tweeted this intriguing article from Billboard and Reuters: the Pink Floyd catalogue is now digitally out of print. There was talk for awhile of them moving the catalogue from longtime home EMI; now it looks like more of a reality.
- Two new Hip-o Select titles are available today: a reissue of John McLaughlin’s modern jazz classic The Promise for Verve in 1996 and a new volume in Smokey Robinson’s solo albums set! Order them here and here and hit the jump for track listings.
Friday Feature: The Rocky Story
Today saw the release of the widely-hyped The Expendables, in which Sylvester Stallone gathered as many action movie heroes, past and present, and shoved them all into a film. By all accounts, it doesn’t seem to have worked as well as it could have. And that’s more or less latter-day Stallone for you. (Seriously, have you seen Rambo?)
With that in mind, this week’s Friday Feature takes you to a simpler time. A time where Stallone was a young actor with a dream, which he turned into a beautifully metaphoric script. That’s right: Rocky, the feature film Stallone wrote and starred in, as million-to-one boxer Rocky Balboa. The story spawned five sequels and became one of the most popular film scores in history, thanks to Bill Conti’s upbeat, infinitely inspirational theme, “Gonna Fly Now,” not to mention a few other testosterone-fueled tunes along the way.
Lace up your running shoes and run up the steps to the halls of Rocky music after the jump.
