Another year...another Black Friday. Yes, it's that time of year again in which consumers start off the holiday shopping season on a mad, frenetic note. This year is another one in which numerous big-box retailers in the U.S. have made headlines by blackening Thursday, or Thanksgiving Day itself, by sales starting on the holiday. So many might give thanks that the folks behind Record Store Day are waiting until the traditional Friday to release their twice-yearly slate of exclusive releases. As
Archives for 2013
BBR Continues Its "Journey" With Salsoul Catalogue
If you're looking for another chance to "dance your ass off," look no further. Big Break Records has returned to the mighty catalogue of Salsoul Records for another three "made in Philadelphia" classics from the soulful disco label. "C'mon, Vince, play your vibes!" Loleatta Holloway exclaimed before the leader of The Salsoul Orchestra, Vince Montana Jr., stepped forward for a solo on "Run Away," the third track on the powerful unit's third non-holiday long-player. 1977's Magic Journey
Intrada Crosses Moon River In Style With Mancini's Original "Breakfast at Tiffany's" Soundtrack
In 1962, Henry Mancini scored a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with Breakfast at Tiffany’s: Music from the Motion Picture on the RCA Victor label. But that 12-track LP only told part of the story of Mancini’s Academy Award-winning score for the film starring Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Buddy Ebsen, Patricia Neal and Mickey Rooney. Like most of the scores from his classic period, Mancini re-recorded his Tiffany’s music in pop arrangements for its RCA “soundtrack” LP. Consequently, the
Feed Your Head: Morello Label Revisits Grace Slick's "Dreams"
Grace Slick certainly made waves in 1998 when she proclaimed to VH1 that “all rock ‘n’ rollers over the age of 50 look stupid and should retire.” Ten years later, she reiterated her feelings to ABC News, commenting, “It’s sad somehow when you watch people who are doing things that my daughter calls ‘age inappropriate.’” So even as many of her contemporaries are still rockin’ into their seventies, the now-73 year old Slick has been painting and enjoying her retirement from music. Luckily,
Beggars Archive Preps New Remasters, Expanded Reissues for "5 Albums" Series
This week, 4AD/Beggars Archive is giving goth-rock fans a trio of Christmas presents, in the form of box sets in their 5 Albums series devoted to Bauhaus, Gene Loves Jezebel and Lords of the Nephilim. Beggars Archive, like so many other labels this year, has found the best way to get certain products on stores (or, at the very least, in some sort of physical configuration) has been to combine multiple products into one neat box. But far from a corner-cutting affair, these boxes look to be a
Release Round-Up: Week of November 26
The Animals, The Mickie Most Years and More / Tower of Power, Hipper Than Hip: Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow – Live on the Air & in the Studio 1974 / Lisa Fischer, So Intense / The Alabama State Troupers, Road Show / The Obsessed, The Church Within (Real Gone Music)An Animals box set and a compilation of unreleased Tower of Power greatness head off Real Gone's slate for the end of the year!The Animals: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.Tower of Power: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.Lisa Fischer: Amazon
It's a Scream! "Rhumba" Takes Latin-Jewish Musical Journey with Carole King, Herb Alpert, Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, More
Last year, The Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation regaled listeners with ‘Twas the Night Before Hanukkah, an eclectic and offbeat anthology that breathed life into the concept of a holiday-themed compilation. With its mission “to look at Jewish history and the Jewish experience through recorded sound” firmly in mind, the organization this year has released another two-disc set that lives up to the much-overused word unique. Whereas last year’s release focused on the relationship in song
Come and Get It: Remastered Badfinger Hits Collection Released Today
Badfinger fans have had plenty of opportunities to “come and get it” in 2013. This past spring, the Estate of Pete Ham utilized Pledge Music to release Keyhole Street: Demos 1966-1967, a 2-CD, 50+-track compilation from the late singer-songwriter. More recently, late last month, Edsel issued its own 2-CD set containing both of Badfinger’s post-Apple records for Warner Bros. plus In Concert at the BBC 1972-3. Badfinger/Wish You Were Here/In Concert at the BBC 1972-3 arrived to some fortuitous
Happy New Year: Real Gone Ushers In 2014 With Blood, Sweat & Tears, Grateful Dead, More
Real Gone Music is hoping to make you so very happy with its first release slate of 2014! On January 7, the Real Goners compile for the very first time The Complete Columbia Singles of jazz-rock pioneers Blood Sweat & Tears, offer up The Complete Atlantic Recordings of the soul great Bettye Swann (“Make Me Yours”), unearth another vintage Grateful Dead show, and recover the lone long-player of R&B singer-songwriter Samuel Jonathan Johnson. Despite 1968’s strong debut Child is Father of
As If She Never Said Goodbye: Barbra Streisand Goes "Back to Brooklyn"
1969’s lavish Academy Award-winning film Hello, Dolly! found Barbra Streisand’s Dolly Levi returning to the Harmonia Gardens restaurant where she was serenaded with Jerry Herman’s famous title tune: “It’s so nice to have you back where you belong…!” Some 43 years later, the same sentiments were applicable when Streisand – as herself, natch – took the stage at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center for two sold-out homecoming concerts. On Tuesday, Columbia Records will release Back to Brooklyn, available
Jazz It Up with New Verve Records Box Set
More than half a century after visionary music impresario Norman Granz founded his third and arguably most successful label, Verve Records, the label will be celebrated in style next month with a new book and a five-disc box set, The Sound of America: The Singles Collection. Granz had previously come to prominence in the jazz world a decade before, when he organized a diverse jam session of a concert at Los Angeles' Philharmonic Auditorium in 1944. This regular session turned into a
Kritzerland "Taps" Maurice Jarre For a Pair of Soundtracks
Three-time Academy Award-winning composer Maurice Jarre (1924-2009) makes his debut on the Kritzerland label with a newly-announced two-for-one release of his scores to 1981’s Taps and 1970’s The Only Game in Town. Hollywood couldn’t help but take notice of the French-born Jarre when he scored director David Lean’s 1962 epic drama Lawrence of Arabia, and the Lean/Jarre collaboration was so successful that Jarre was asked to score each of Lean’s subsequent films. He won his first Oscar for
Heavy "Drama": SoulMusic Slate Includes The Dramatics, Nancy Wilson, D.J. Rogers
As the old expression goes, all good things must come to an end. And so Nancy Wilson's 37-album, 20-year tenure at Capitol Records ended in 1980 with the release of Take My Love. At Capitol, Wilson had proved her mastery of Broadway, Hollywood, traditional vocal jazz, fusion jazz, pop and soul, and had collaborated with the likes of George Shearing, Cannonball Adderley, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, Thom Bell, and Oliver Nelson. On her final Capitol LP, Wilson enlisted producers Larry Farrow
Release Round-Up: Week of November 19
There's a Dream I've Been Saving: Lee Hazlewood Industries 1966 - 1971 (Light in the Attic) The legendary psychedelic cowboy shone brighter than ever as a singer-songwriter-producer on his own label in the latter half of the decade. This 4CD/1DVD/1 flexidisc box (also available with an extra three data DVDs!) covers that period of his career in exhaustive detail. Standard box: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Deluxe box: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Frank Sinatra, Duets: 20th Anniversary
Not Forever, Just for Now: Legacy to Expand Uncle Tupelo's "No Depression"
After several years in the making, the landmark debut album by alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo will be released as a double-disc edition from Legacy Recordings in 2014. No Depression, originally released in 1990 on the Rockville Records label, was the proper debut of the Belleville, Illinois trio, comprised singer/guitarist Jay Farrar, singer/bassist Jeff Tweedy and drummer Mike Heidorn. The trio had played together since high school and, a year before their debut, were hailed by The CMJ New
Taste the Happy: Varese Compiles Score Tracks from "Arrested Development"
The folks at Varese Sarabande have not made a huge mistake with one of their latest, somewhat archival soundtrack releases: a compilation of songs and score from the acclaimed television series Arrested Development. "Now, the story of a wealthy family who lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together." A catchy intro from the show's narrator/executive producer, an uncredited Ron Howard - but for a number of semi-explainable reasons, Arrested Development failed
Are We Having Fun Yet? Nickelback Release Hits Compilation
What happens when a band seemingly despised by the entirety of the universe releases a compilation? We're about to find out with tomorrow's release of The Best of Nickelback Volume 1. The Canadian quartet have, in an era dominated largely by dance pop and hip-hop, eked out considerable success with straightforward rock 'n' roll. Breakthrough single "How You Remind Me," released in 2001, remains one of the last traditional rock songs to hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100; follow-up singles
Slices of Bread: David Gates and James Griffin's Solo Records, Reissued and Remastered
Bread occupied a unique place on the Elektra Records roster. The so-called “soft rock” band shared a label with the likes of Love, The Doors, The Stooges and The MC5, and regularly visited the charts with such signature songs as “Make It with You” (No. 1, 1970), “It Don’t Matter to Me” (No. 10, 1970), “If” (No. 4, 1971), “Baby I’m-a Want You” (No. 3, 1971), “Everything I Own” (No. 5, 1972) and “The Guitar Man” (No. 11, 1972). All of those staples were written and sung by David Gates, the
Too Marvelous For Words: Bing Crosby Archive Collection Celebrates Johnny Mercer, "Le Bing"
The two latest releases in the Bing Crosby Archive Collection – now distributed by Universal Music – take the legendary crooner around the world, from the American South to the streets of Paris, France. Bing Crosby Enterprises has just released one new anthology, Bing Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook, along with a 60th anniversary deluxe expanded reissue of the Decca album Le Bing: Song Hits of Paris. In the tradition of past Archive Collection releases, these discs are packed with rarities
Review: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Miami Pop Festival"
By the time Jimi Hendrix took the stage at Hallandale, Florida’s Gulfstream Park on May 18, 1968, the 25-year old guitarist, songwriter and visionary’s reputation preceded him. He had already released two studio albums (1967’s Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold as Love released in 1967 in the U.K. and 1968 in the U.S.) and established himself as an unpredictable performer not to be missed when he set his guitar ablaze amidst the peace and love of the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967. With
Legacy Expands Orbison's "Last Concert" with Rare Video, Reissues "A Black and White Night"
Roy Orbison's catalogue has been the subject of some interesting reissues of late from Legacy Recordings: the label recently reissued In Dreams: The Greatest Hits, a 1987 compilation of newly recorded versions of his old classics, and will reissue all three of his Monument Records albums (with a bonus "fourth," posthumously assembled by his family) in a vinyl box set for Record Store Day. Legacy now adds two more latter-day archival projects to the schedule: a DVD reissue of the 1988 special A
Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye): Final "The Complete Motown Singles" Volume Bows
They did it. Nearly nine years after the first volume in Hip-O Select's The Complete Motown Singles box set series was released, the 14th and final entry in the series, Volume 12B: 1972, will be released on December 10, just in time for the holidays. The year 1972 marks, for many, the end of the "classic Motown" period. Label founder Berry Gordy moved label operations from Detroit to Los Angeles, and many of his most treasured acts were in periods of transition. Diana Ross was long a solo
With You I'm Born Again: SoulMusic Label Revives Motown Duets with Syreeta and Billy Preston, Thelma Houston and Jerry Butler
With two of its latest releases, Cherry Red's SoulMusic Records imprint has revisited three classic Motown duets albums on two CDs. Longtime collectors of SoulMusic Records’ releases know that the label frequently jumps back and forth with an artist’s catalogue rather than releasing titles in chronological order. Such is the case with its latest reissue from Syreeta, born Syreeta Wright. In recent months, SoulMusic has revisited Motown queen Syreeta’s third and fourth solo albums, 1977’s One
Black Oak Arkansas Rarities Sail Under the Radar
Surprise! While we were focusing on the biggest of box sets over at The Second Disc, Atlantic quietly released a disc of unreleased vintage material from Southern rockers Black Oak Arkansas. One of the top touring acts of the early 1970s, Black Oak Arkansas - with its triple-guitar lineup and idiosyncratic vocal style of Jim "Dandy" Mangrum - earned a great deal of acclaim in studio and on the road. Earlier this year, Mangrum reunited with original members Rickie Lee "Risky" Reynolds (rhythm
Review: Miles Davis, "The Original Mono Recordings"
“Mono featured less audio trickery and fewer audio distractions, so you can actually hear the musical conversation between Miles and the other musicians as it occurred in the studio.” That’s producer George Avakian as quoted in the liner notes for Columbia and Legacy’s new nine-album box set Miles Davis: The Original Mono Recordings. And that purity of sound - further described by the producer of Davis’ first two Columbia albums as “truer to the studio sound and the original intent” – is
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