Rhino Records has quite the cure for the usual January doldrums that hit the release calendar, announcing more than a dozen new and reissued titles available exclusively through participating physical stores.
The "Start Your Ear Off Right" initiative, featuring titles available January 19, encompass some of the best-known names in Rhino's back catalogue, including The Grateful Dead, The Monkees, Devo, The Cars and The Replacements. From colored vinyl variants to CD box sets, there's virtually something for everyone here.
And just what will you find? Read on and find out!
Bad Company, Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy: The Very Best of Bad Company (2LP)
Released on CD last year following a pair of expanded reissues of Bad Company and Straight Shooter, this 180-gram double-disc anthology collects the British supergroup's biggest hits from 1974 to 1982, plus two unreleased alternate versions.
Blue Man Group, Giacometti/Ready Go (7" Single)
Two new tracks from the inscrutable theatrical collective, pressed on (what else?) blue vinyl and limited to 5,000 copies.
The Cars, The Cars (Color LP)
While the Boston New Wave pioneers didn't get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, their groundbreaking debut record, featuring "Just What I Needed" and "My Best Friend's Girl," sounds fresher than ever more than 35 years later. It's being reissued on blue vinyl as a limited run of 5,000 copies.
Cibo Matto, Viva! La Woman (Color LP)
The Japanese-American duo had a college-rock cult hit on their hands 20 years ago this month with Viva! La Woman, an avant-garde opus about food. This orange vinyl reissue is the first time the album's been available on vinyl since its release!
Devo, Freedom of Choice (Color LP)
It's been 35 years since Devo released their most successful record, featuring "Whip It" and "Girl U Want." Now, it can be yours on red, white and blue splatter vinyl!
Grateful Dead, Shrine Exposition Hall, Los Angeles, CA 11/10/1967 (3LP)
The first show to be included in the massive 80-disc 30 Trips Around the Sun box set, this 1967 set makes its way out of the box and onto a triple-disc, 180-gram vinyl set limited to 6,700 copies.
Various Artists, Jackie Brown: Music from the Miramax Motion Picture (Color LP)
If you've been on a Quentin Tarantino kick following his new film The Hateful Eight, you can score this yellow, 180-gram vinyl version of the soundtrack to his 1997 blaxploitation homage.
The Monkees, Classic Album Collection and Cereal Box Singles
We're sure our Monkee fans are making room for the forthcoming Blu-ray set of the complete series due this year, but two new box sets are coming their way, too! Classic Album Collection is a 10CD set featuring all nine of the band's Colgems albums from 1966 to 1970, plus a bonus disc of non-LP singles. Vinyl fans can enjoy a balanced breakfast with Cereal Box Singles, featuring four recreations of "cereal box" cardboard records fans spent their weekends cutting out! This set includes "Last Train to Clarksville" plus three unreleased TV mixes of "Words," "I Never Thought It Peculiar" and "Valleri."
The Replacements, Twin/Tone albums on LP
The band's first four full-length LPs on Twin/Tone Records--Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash (1981), the EP Stink (1982), Hootenanny (1983) and Let It Be (1984)--are back on wax for the first time in two decades!
Temple City Kazoo Orchestra, Some Kazoos (7" Single)
This looney four-track single of crazy kazoo covers ("Also Sprach Zarathustra," "Stayin' Alive," "Miss You" and "Whole Lotta Love") seems a lot less crazy and a lot more meaningful when you discover it was Rhino Records RNEP 501--the label's first-ever release and the progenitor of dozens, if not much more, of the label's classic catalogue titles we hold so dear. Thirty-seven years later, it's been repressed on burgundy vinyl for the colored vinyl enthusiast.
Various Artists, The Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1959-1968
One of the best accounts of the venerable Memphis soul label on disc, this 9CD box set packed with A-sides from Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Booker T. & The MGs and many more is back on CD after a decade out of print, in a new clamshell box package with individual CD jackets.
The Velvet Underground, Live At Max's Kansas City (2LP/CD)
The Velvets' 1970 show at the legendary New York City venue, included in last year's Loaded 45th anniversary box set, gets a standalone release on 180-gram double vinyl or a new CD pressing.
And that's not all, either! Participating stores will also carry some free-with-purchase swag. Barnes and Noble will offer an exclusive vinyl slipmat, while other stores will carry limited quantities of Rhino's 2016 calendar. This is the first year Rhino is making their calendar, packed with cool trivia and imagery, available to the public (although one is hanging proudly at Second Disc HQ!).
Visit Rhino's official landing page to find out which stores are carrying these special titles!
Zubb says
Very interested in the Monkees Cereal Box Singles as well as the complete albums set with the bonus disc.