Features / Release Round-Up

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!

Ron Wood and Ronnie Lane, Mahoney’s Last Stand: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Faces’ Ronnie Lane and Ron Wood teamed up to pen the score, consisting of country/folk-flavored songs and instrumental tracks, for this 1972 low-budget Canadian film.  Real Gone brings it back to CD with new liner notes by Richie Unterberger.  Read more here!

Roxy Music, Roxy Music: Super Deluxe Edition (Virgin/UMe)

3CD/1DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Roxy Music’s debut album goes super deluxe in a 3CD/1DVD box.  In addition to the original album (presented as mastered by Bob Ludwig in 1999), it adds two discs of unreleased material (mastered by Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road Studios), with early demos, outtakes and BBC sessions included. The DVD features a remix of the album in 5.1 surround sound by Steven Wilson (confirmed by the acclaimed engineer/musician to have been completed in 2012), a handful of British television appearances and unearthed footage of the group at The Bataclan in Paris – the only surviving footage of a show with bass player Rik Kenton, the last musician to officially fill this spot during the band’s existence.  It’s also available as a 2CD cutdown featuring the album and BBC sessions, or as a newly-pressed 180-gram LP.  Read more here!

Country Joe & The Fish, The Wave of Electrical Sound (Craft Recordings) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The Wave of Electrical Sound is a 4LP/1DVD box that features remastered mono and stereo versions of the group’s two 1967 albums, Electric Music for the Mind and Body and I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die, both released by Vanguard Records.  These psych-rock classics are joined by a DVD of How We Stopped The War, a vintage short documentary from 1967 directed by David Webb Peoples (writer or co-writer of the films Blade Runner, Unforgiven and 12 Monkeys); replicas of band ephemera; and a new 24-page book of rare photos and new liner notes by box set producer Alec Palao. Limited to 2,000 units.  Read the track listing and more here!

Frank Zappa/Mothers, The Roxy Performances (Zappa/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

This expansive 7-CD box set features all of Zappa and The Mothers of Invention’s four public shows from December 9-10, 1973 at the Roxy Theatre in Hollywood, as remixed in 2016 and presented in their entirety for the very first time.  As a bonus, the December 8 soundcheck has been included, as well as rehearsal tracks, highlights from the Bolic Studios recording session that happened in conjunction with the concerts’ filming dates, and more! Read more here!

Grateful Dead, Road Trips Vol. 4 No. 3: Denver ’73 (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Real Gone continues its re-pressings of Grateful Dead’s Road Trips series with Vol. 4, No. 3.  This 3-CD set contains the full concert from November 21, 1973 at the Denver Coliseum in Denver, Colorado.  It also contains three songs from the concert the night before at the same venue.  This concert came a little over a month after the release of the group’s sixth studio album, Wake of the Flood.  That album was the first not to feature founding member Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, who had passed away March, 1973.  This set was first available through the band’s website back in April, 2011.  You’ll find the full track listing and more here!

John Williams, John Williams: Conductor (Sony Masterworks) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The iconic film composer’s talents as orchestral leader – leading ensembles like The Boston Pops and The London Symphony Orchestra on renditions of his own material as well as thematic collections – are showcased on this special box set featuring every album he’s held the baton for on the Sony Classical and Masterworks labels between 1990 and the present! Learn more here!

Bee Gees, One for All Tour: Live in Australia 1989 (Eagle Vision)

Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

This special concert for the Australian-raised legendary pop trio was released on video in 1991 (and on CD as part of a Rhino box set); now, it makes its Blu-ray debut with newly restored and mixed surround sound!

John Oates & The Good Road Band, Arkansas (PS/Thirty Tigers)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

The formerly mustached half of Daryl Hall & John Oates issues a brand new solo album, influenced by Americana and the blues.

Various Artists, Finally Together: The Ru-Jac Records Story, Volume Three: 1966-1967 and Changes: The Ru-Jac Records Story, Volume Four: 1967-1980 (Omnivore/Ru-Jac)

Finally Together: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Changes: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

The underrated Baltimore soul label has been feted by Omnivore with these, the last two of four volumes chronicling the Ru-Jac story! Includes 15 unreleased tracks between both volumes – read more here!

Various Artists, Lady Bird: Soundtrack from the Motion Picture (Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Previously available as a digital title, the CD companion album to Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-nominated directorial debut features pop songs heard in the film like Dave Matthews Band’s “Crash Into Me” and The Monkees’ “As We Go Along,” plus snippets of dialogue from the picture.

Donnybrook! Original Broadway Cast Recording (Stage Door) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The long-awaited CD debut of Johnny Burke’s short-lived 1961 Broadway musical Donnybrook! (an adaptation of the film The Quiet Man) – starring Eddie Foy, Art Lund, Susan Johnson, and Philip Bosco – is here from Stage Door Records in an expanded edition also featuring The Pete King Orchestra’s album of instrumental covers from the score.  This release of these two original Kapp albums is made possible via current U.K. public domain laws.  “Dee-Lightful is the Word” for this classic, tuneful, and long overdue on CD, cast album!

Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman, The Last of the Mohicans: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Limited “Sepia-Toned” Vinyl Edition) (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Real Gone has a new 2-LP limited edition vinyl release (on sepia-toned vinyl) of Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman’s original soundtrack to director Michael Mann’s 1992 classic, The Last of the Mohicans.  Read more here!

Richard M. Sherman & Robert B. Sherman, Levi! The Musical (Kritzerland) (Amazon U.S. / Kritzerland)

Don’t miss the “Opportunity” to take home this recording of a truly special production: a 2017 premiere of a brand-new musical by the Sherman Brothers!  Kritzerland has preserved director Bruce Kimmel’s Los Angeles production of Levi!, the never-before-seen biographical musical about Levi Strauss featuring a book by Larry Cohen and Janelle Webb Cohen, and a score by the “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” songwriting team.  Richard and his late brother Robert have supplied a score that ranks among their best work: consistently tuneful, alternately humorous and moving, and always affecting.  Levi! is loaded with heart, which this live recording captures beautifully.  It’s available now on CD at Amazon and directly through Kritzerland! 

Richard M. Sherman & Robert B. Sherman, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Vinyl) (Varese Sarabande) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

It’s twice as much Sherman Brothers this week! In honor of its 50th anniversary, the soundtrack to the film version of Ian Fleming’s children’s novel featuring songs from “the boys” and score from Irwin Kostal (the dream team behind Mary Poppins) is back on vinyl!