When is a lost album not a lost album? In the case of Lonely and Blue: The Deepest Soul of Otis Redding, the answer is, “when the album has been created in 2013 to look, sound and feel like a Stax/Volt release from almost five decades prior!” On March 5, Stax and Concord Records will release this newly-created concept album of the late soul shouter’s most torrid ballads on both CD and a special blue vinyl LP. Compilation producer David Gorman set out with one goal in mind: “to find the
Archives for 2013
Numero is (Possibly) Purple on Forthcoming LP Reissue
Nearly 35 years after the unceremonious release of The Lewis Conection, a local Minneapolis band's sole funk LP, The Numero Group is resurrecting the disc, giving it a premiere release next month. (It's part of an forthcoming phase at Numero to unearth significant and rare recordings from the early days of the Minneapolis sound.) What makes this set so special? According to popular lore, while recording the album at Minneapolis' Sound 80 Studios, The Lewis Connection invited an 18-year-old
Say Their Name: "Love Songs" Arrives from Destiny's Child, Includes New Song
The upbeat dance-pop/R&B of Destiny’s Child successfully updated the girl group sound for the late 1990s and early 2000s, and launched the careers of Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams and Beyoncé Knowles. In late 2012, Legacy Recordings marked the fifteenth anniversary of the group’s No. 1 debut single with the release of Playlist: The Very Best of Destiny’s Child. That disc soon became the most successful entry in the Playlist series. So it might come as no surprise that the label will
Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: Jack White's Label Issues Rare Blues Masters on Vinyl
Jack White's Third Man Records label, not merely content to issue unique offerings of the ex-White Stripe's music on a variety of formats, is now getting into the historical catalogue business with three forthcoming LPs of vintage blues masters. The new venture, Document Records, will present "the building blocks and DNA of American culture," as the announcement put it. This first wave of recordings features the early works of Charley Patton, the lauded "Father of the Delta Blues"whose powerful
Big Break Goes Disco with KC and the Sunshine Band, George McCrae, Johnnie Taylor
The Temptations had sunshine on a rainy day, John Denver had it on his shoulders, and the O'Jays took their cue from an old standard to address a loved one as "my sunshine." But Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch, forming Miami's KC and the Sunshine Band, had sunshine both in the band name and in the joyful, exultant brand of music they played. Big Break Records has recently reissued one title recorded by those disco titans, one title produced by them, and one with another connection to the
Duran Duran's TV Mania Project Resurrected for Release in Spring
As previously reported, TV Mania - the short-lived, little-heard side project of Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes and former guitarist Warren Cuccurullo - is finally getting a release after years in the vault. The concept sounds surprisingly relevant: a musical treatise on an overly media-saturated couple, culled from snippets of original studio creations and found sound. But it's not something crafted by an upstart artist in 2013 - it was finished nearly 15 years ago, before the Internet really took
Grammy Time: Music's Biggest Night Honored with Annual Compilation
We're just a few weeks from the 55th Annual Grammy Awards - or as I like to call it, "how many times can my music geek friends and I make cutting jokes on the Internet?" - and, as is customary, next week will see the release of a compilation of Grammy-nominated songs for your perusal. The 22-track compilation, distributed this year by EMI, has quite the cross-section of cuts from what is a rather diverse year for the awards ceremony. Altogether, six different artists - Dan Auerbach of the
Mary Wells' Early Motown Albums Collected in Mono on New Release
The third major Mary Wells release in recent months has arrived courtesy Ace Records’ Kent label. The One Who Really Loves You/Two Lovers combines Wells’ second and third Motown long-players on one remastered CD, with every track taken from the original mono masters for the first time in the compact disc era. Though Wells’ time at Motown was relatively brief, her star burned brightest there. The first true superstar to emerge from Hitsville, she was also the first of the company’s artists to
Don't Cry For Me, Princess Leia: John Williams, Andrew Lloyd Webber Go Disco
What do a beloved Broadway musical and an iconic sci-fi epic have to do with dance music pioneer Boris Midney? Plenty, as it turns out. Midney, a producer and arranger who came to prominence in the disco era with his expansive 48-track productions, recorded under a number of guises: Caress, Beautiful Bend, Masquerade, Double Discovery, to name a few. And The Demon Music Group’s Harmless Records imprint indeed does have a double discovery! On January 26 in the U.K. and one week later in the
Release Round-Up: Week of January 15
New Order, The Lost Sirens (Rhino) (Amazon U.S./Amazon U.K.) A cadre of outtakes from the Waiting for the Siren's Call sessions, this marks the last New Order material with original bassist Peter Hook. Johnny Mathis, A Special Part of Me: Expanded Edition (Amazon U.S./Amazon U.K.) (Funkytowngrooves) FTG's latest R&B expansion has a Michael Jackson connection: the future King of Pop co-wrote for Mathis "Love Never Felt So Good" with Paul Anka! Talk Talk, Natural History: The Very Best of
Dusty Groove Label Returns From Real Gone Music with Steig, Humphrey, Harris
The venerable Blue Note Records label was founded in 1939, and from the late 1940s onward emphasized what was most modern about jazz. Blue Note became well known, of course, for the hard bop classics recorded under its aegis. But the varied influences that created hard bop led Blue Note to explore how the avenues of soul, rock and blues intersected with that of jazz. Three new releases from Real Gone Music and the reactivated Dusty Groove Records label explore three sonically-diverse titles
Getting Away with It: Sumner and Marr's "Electronic" Gets a Confusing Expansion
It's not enough for Johnny Marr to be one of the greatest guitarists of the modern era (one with a solo album bowing today in the U.K.); this March, his acclaimed foray into dance music with Bernard Sumner will be reissued. But brace yourself, fans: it's a little weird. Frustrated by New Order's resistance to a more synth-based direction, Sumner began work on the Electronic by himself, but called longtime friend Marr - whose departure from The Smiths caused the band to dissolve - to
Real Gone Announces Hendrix-Produced LP from Cat Mother, Plus Grateful Dead, Rod McKuen, The Hello People, Freddie King, More
From a lost classic produced by Jimi Hendrix to Grateful Dead playing Warren Zevon, Real Gone Music’s February release slate has a little bit of soul, rock, pop, blues and even poetry! The label founded by Gordon Anderson and Gabby Castellana has an impressive line-up of titles due on February 26, including the first-ever standalone CD reissue of the Richard Perry-produced Reprise debut of Fanny (the first all-female rock group signed to a major label), a definitive 2-CD singles collection from
Beat The Boots: Digital Volumes of "Motown Unreleased 1962" Quietly Released Online
There's been much talk this week of Bob Dylan's 50th Anniversary Collection, a (very) limited edition title released in Europe to protect the singer's 1962 recordings from entering the public domain there. But we can report that it's not alone. On December 18, Universal Music very quietly released six exciting, digital-only compilations under the umbrella of Motown Unreleased: 1962. The New York Times has been among those speculating that the 120 tracks contained on the six "albums" have all
Short Takes: Tabu, TV Mania, Living Colour All Have Plans
Some small morsels of potential catalogue-oriented stuff coming your way on this fine Thursday: Demon Music Group promised back in July a slew of reissues from the Tabu Records catalogue, a label that included R&B hits by Cherrelle, Alexander O'Neal and The S.O.S. Band. It looks like those plans may be moving further forward: the label's official Facebook page yesterday teased "huge plans for the label" in 2013. Though not out of reissue ideas for their own proper catalogue, Duran Duran
So Nice: Light in the Attic Remasters, Expands Four Albums From Brazilian Bossa Legend Marcos Valle
After The Walter Wanderley Trio introduced “Summer Samba (So Nice)” to American record buyers in 1966, the breezy bossa nova tune immediately caught on, transporting listeners to the tropics via recordings by Johnny Mathis, Vikki Carr, Connie Francis and the original voice of “The Girl from Ipanema,” Astrud Gilberto. But “So Nice” is just one of the musical gifts bestowed over the years by Brazilian composer Marcos Valle. Beginning next Tuesday, January 15, Light in the Attic is beginning a
Deep Purple Duo: Blackmore's Final Show, "Slaves and Masters" to Be Reissued
Deep Purple fans have much to be excited about this month with two new catalogue projects covering two very different eras of the long-running rock group. Eagle Rock kicks things off with a new remaster and reissue of Live in Paris 1975, reportedly the first of 10 forthcoming titles from the band on the label. First released in full back in 2004 but excerpted on many Deep Purple live projects (starting with 1976's Made in Europe), this show, recorded at Paris' Palais de Sports in April 1975, is
Johnny Mathis' Expanded "Special Part of Me" Highlights Paul Anka and Michael Jackson Collaboration
It's been a wonderful, wonderful time to be a fan of Johnny Mathis, with the singer's long-lost Mercury Records catalogue recently having been upgraded to CD by Real Gone Music. As 2013 opens, another label is turning its attention to the Mathis catalogue. Funky Town Grooves is returning the 1984 album A Special Part of Me to CD in a first-ever expanded edition due on January 15. Mathis' association with Columbia Records began in 1956 when he was just 21 years of age, and these many years
Intrada Goes Ape, Expands "Congo" and "Cromwell" Scores
Expanded scores by iconic composers? Reissues of soundtrack oddities paired with newly-discovered gems? Yes, it's certainly 2013 at Intrada! The label unveiled its first two titles for the new year on Monday: complete presentations of Jerry Goldsmith's score to Congo and Frank Cordell's Cromwell. Released at the height of the mid-'90s post-Jurassic Park frenzy, Congo (which, like JP, was based on a techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton) was the story of a team of scientists and mercenaries
Little Bit O'Soul: Thelma Houston, Syreeta, Nancy Wilson, Brecker Brothers, George Duke Reissued
Soul music was alive and well in 2012, and some of the finest reissues arrived courtesy of Cherry Red's SoulMusic Records label. With the label already looking forward to 2013 releases from artists including Ronnie Laws, Patti Austin, Stephanie Mills, George Duke, Gwen Guthrie and Freda Payne (more on those soon), the time is right to revisit some of the year-end titles that might have fallen under the radar! In addition to celebrating the post-Motown recordings of Mary Wells at 20th Century
30 Years of F#@$?!in' Up: NOFX Unveil Career-Spanning Vinyl Box
Long-running punk outfit NOFX will celebrate three decades of recording with a lavish vinyl box set next month. The iconoclastic group, led by punk elder statesman "Fat Mike" Burkett, has remained one of the most "pure" (for lack of a better term) American punk groups in their time together, largely eschewing press and having never signed to a major label. (Epitaph has distributed much of their catalogue, but Burkett has also operated indie label Fat Wreck Chords since 1990; that label issued
Bob Dylan's (Copyright) Blues: "Freewheelin'" Outtakes and More Get a Limited, Pricey Release
January 2013 is barely one week old, but a candidate for strangest catalogue music story of the year has already broken. A 4-CD set of outtakes from the early career of Bob Dylan has recently been released, but don’t look for it in your local record shop, or even online. The 50th Anniversary Collection contains 86 Dylan songs, all recorded in 1962. But despite the interest that fans worldwide might have in this material (some of which has never circulated, even in collectors’ circles), the
Mad Season's "Above" Rediscovered for Expansive Deluxe Edition
Though the group isn’t often spoken of in the same breath as Crosby, Stills and Nash or The Traveling Wilburys, Mad Season was a bona fide supergroup for the 1990s. The Seattle-based group of musicians - Layne Staley of Alice in Chains, guitarist Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, drummer/percussionist Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees, and bassist John Baker Saunders of The Walkabouts and The Lamont Cranston Band - joined together in 1994 and released just one album, 1995’s Columbia Records release
Burt Bacharach's "Together?" Finally Arrives On CD, Features Jackie DeShannon, Michael McDonald
Sexual liberation only goes so far… So went the tagline of director Armenia Balducci’s 1979 film Amo non amo. When the Italian drama starring Jacqueline Bisset, Maximilian Schell and Terence Stamp was slated for U.S. release, though, the decision was made to replace the score by Italian prog/symphonic “horror rock” band Goblin with a new, more accessible soundtrack. Burt Bacharach was tapped, and the Oscar-winning composer went far in lending an American flavor to the film, retitled for the
We Love You Conrad, Oh Yes We Do: "Bye Bye Birdie" Film Soundtrack Turns 50, Is Newly-Expanded
Gray skies are gonna clear up... More than seven years before the first Tribe of Hair let the sun shine in, another cast of characters brought rock (and roll!) to the New York stage. Michael Stewart, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams’ smash hit musical Bye Bye Birdie skyrocketed its leading actors Dick Van Dyke and Chita Rivera to greater fame in 1960, alongside director/choreographer Gower Champion, in a sweet but timely tale of a hip-swiveling rocker about to go off to the Army and the one