News

There soon will be many more Yessongs.

Progressive rockers Yes released the triple-LP live album Yessongs in 1973. It captured the band at the height of its powers, riding a wave of success thanks to the 1972 album Close to the Edge. In the weeks leading up to the recording of Yessongs, however, the band recorded a number of shows that are now being collected in Rhino’s massive 14-CD box set Progeny: Seven Shows from Seventy-Two. The May 19 release contains seven complete shows recorded in the fall of 1972 as Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman and new kid on the block Alan White trekked from Canada to North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, before their last stop at New York’s Nassau Coliseum on November 20th. The discs are housed in a flip-top box with new artwork by Roger Dean.

The seven shows are:

• 31 Oct 1972: Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• 01 Nov 1972: National Arts Centre English Theatre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
• 11 Nov 1972: Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA
• 12 Nov 1972: Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA
• 14 Nov 1972: University Of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
• 15 Nov 1972: Knoxville Civic Auditorium, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
• 20 Nov 1972: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, New York, USA

Progeny will also be distilled into a 2-CD or 3-LP set replicating a roughly 90-minute set drawn from the various concerts, and these “highlights” editions will also be available from Rhino on May 19.

Progeny: Seven Shows from Seventy-Two 14-CD Box: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. TBD
Progeny: Highlights from Seventy-Two 2-CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. TBD
Progeny: Highlights from Seventy-Two 2-LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. TBD

Metallica is hell-bent for Leather…No Life ‘Til Leather, that is. The metal icons have announced the Record Store Day release on Saturday, April 18 of the band’s original demo tape…on cassette! Featuring the early band line-up of vocalist-guitarist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, bassist Ron McGovney and lead guitarist Dave Mustaine (later of Megadeth), Leather includes Metallica favorites such as “Hit The Lights,” “Motorbreath,” “Seek and Destroy,” “Metal Militia” and “Phantom Lord,” as well as “The Mechanix,” which Metallica would rework as “The Four Horsemen.” Mustaine would go on to record “Mechanix” with Megadeth on that group’s debut album, 1985’s Killing Is My Business… and Business is Good!

No Life ‘Til Leather will arrive from Metallica’s own Blackened Recordings label; Lars Ulrich told Rolling Stone that the band recognized it was time to do the same reissue “song and dance” as Led Zeppelin, U2, Oasis and the like. Leather is promised as an expanded reissue, but no information is yet available as to what bonus tracks will be appended to the original demo’s contents. Don’t have a cassette player? No worries. Metallica promises that vinyl and CD editions will follow this summer. Stay tuned for more details as they become available!

It’s time to JUMP! Come March 30 in the U.K. and March 31 in the U.S., Rhino is all about Van Halen. For starters, the label has the first-ever live album from Van Halen to feature Diamond Dave himself, David Lee Roth. Recorded on June 21, 2013 at Japan’s Tokyo Dome with Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen and Wolfgang Van Halen, Tokyo Dome Live in Concert boasts 25 songs representing all seven of the band’s albums with Roth, right up through 2012’s A Different Kind of Truth. Mixed by Bob Clearmountain and mastered by Chris Bellman, it will be released in 2-CD, 4-LP and DD configurations.

But that’s not all. On the same dates, Rhino will reissue the band’s 1978 eponymous debut Van Halen (including “Runnin’ with the Devil,” “Eruption” and the band’s revival of The Kinks’ “You Really Got Me”) as well as David Lee Roth’s swansong, 1984 (with “Jump,” “Panama” and “Hot for Teacher”). Although neither title adds any bonus material, both have been remastered from the original analog tapes for CD, LP and DD.

Van Halen and 1984 have been remastered by Chris Bellman, who is currently working on remastering Diver Down, Women and Children First, Van Halen II and Fair Warning. For those interested in all of the above, Rhino will additionally offer Tokyo Dome Live in Concert and the Van Halen and 1984 albums as combined 4-CD and 6-LP sets.  Some of the pre-order links for Amazon U.S. and U.K. are not yet active; we will update as soon as links become available!

Van Halen CD Remaster: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Van Halen LP Remaster: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
1984 CD Remaster: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
1984 LP Remaster: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Tokyo Dome Live in Concert 2-CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Tokyo Dome Live in Concert 4-LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Tokyo Dome/Remasters Deluxe 4-CD Set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Tokyo Dome/Remasters Deluxe 6-LP Set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.