When it comes to Record Store Day, Liberation Hall sure isn't kidding around. The label has seven titles from a host of rock, jazz, blues, and folk superstars, all set for release on vinyl at independent record stores everywhere tomorrow, April 22 - but that's not all. All seven albums have also arrived on CD.
Eddie Money's The Covers (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) brings the late rock-and-roller's two 2009 EPs together on one album. The eight songs on The Covers encompass the rock spectrum, from the classics (The Beatles' "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" and "Ticket to Ride," The Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin'," The Doors' "Roadhouse Blues") to modern classics (Train's "Drops of Jupiter," Green Day's "When I Come Around"). Along the way, Eddie also brings his gritty rasp to R&B (Four Tops' "Reach Out I'll Be There") and heavy riff-rock (AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n Roll)"). The RSD First vinyl release is limited to 1,500 copies.
Bay Area-based new wave/punk band Romeo Void released their first album, It's a Condition, in 1981. During the months Debora Iyora (lead vocals), Peter Woods (guitar), Benjamin Bossi (saxophone), Frank Zincavage (bass), and Jay Derrah (drummer) were recording that LP with producer David Kahne, they were also performing live. This first authorized concert album, Live at Mabuhay Gardens: November 14, 1980 (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) was recorded, mixed, and produced by Terry Hammer and captures the group with immediacy. The 11-track set features eight songs from It's a Condition plus the later B-side "Guards" and a cover of The Swingin' Medallions' 1966 oldie "Double Shot of My Baby's Love." Mabuhay Gardens or "The Mab," a seminal venue in the development of Bay Area punk, closed its doors in 1997 after hosting The Sex Pistols, Devo, Dead Kennedys, and many more. Today, the historic building is still in use as an event space. Liberation Hall's document of one of an electric night at the venue is an RSD First title and limited to 1,500 copies.
Another live album comes from Texas' Sir Douglas Quintet. The "She's About a Mover" rockers were playing Doug Weston's famed Troubadour on Santa Monica Boulevard in September 1971 when this set was captured during a soundcheck by board operator Daniel Rose. Texas Tornado Live (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) features the lineup of Doug Sahm (lead vocals/guitar/piano), Augie Meyers (organ), Jim Stallings (bass/vocals), Frank Morin (saxophone/tambourine), Martin Fierro (saxophone/percussion), and Johnny Perez (drums) running through favorites including the hits "She's About a Mover" and "Mendocino" as well as other selections including "Tortilla Flats" from 1970's 1+1+1=4 and "Heya Heya" from their then-recent 1971 Future Tense LP. Stallings was the new kid in town, having replaced Harvey Kagan on bass. Though the set is only half an hour long, the band's sheer energy and rootsy Americana flavor is compensation enough. The 1,500-unit RSD First vinyl edition is pressed at 45 RPM. Randy Perry has mastered.
Phil Ochs' The Best of the Rest: Rare and Unreleased Recordings (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) was first issued on CD in 2020 and now arrives on RSD as a 2-LP RSD First title limited to 2,500 copies. The prolific folk troubadour (1940-1976) lent his voice to the '60s counterculture, bringing a sharp wit and righteous fury to his activism and his recordings. His first of six studio albums, All the News That's Fit to Sing, was released on Elektra in 1964; he would go on to record one more studio set (I Ain't Marching Anymore) and one more live set before decamping to A&M. The Best of the Rest collects 17 demos recorded by Ochs for Warner-Chappell Publishing between 1964 and 1965, around the time of those last two Elektra records. This collection, including such compositions as "Love Me, I'm a Liberal," "Here's to the State of Mississippi," and "The Men Behind the Guns," has been produced by Phil's younger brother Michael Ochs (who managed him and founded the famous photo archive that bears his name) and annotated by Phil's biographer David Cohen. The 2-LP set is packaged in a gatefold jacket.
Bossa nova took hold of the United States in the early 1960s, and its soft and sensual sounds got one of their first major live showcases on the evening of November 21, 1962 at New York's Carnegie Hall. A pre-Brasil '66 Sergio Mendes, Luis Bonfá, Oscar Castro-Neves, Milton Banana, Bola Sete, Carlos Lyra, and Joao Gilberto were among the artists assembled on the great stage to celebrate this mesmerizing new trend in music. The Bossa Nova at Carnegie Hall (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) concert was the brainchild of Audio Fidelity Records' Sidney Frey, who made a trip to Brazil to entice the country's finest musicians to perform at the concert. (While Antonio Carlos Jobim wasn't part of the lineup, he's represented nonetheless via such timeless compositions as "One Note Samba," "Congratulations," and "Again." He hadn't yet teamed with Gilberto, Stan Getz, and Astrud Gilberto for the era- and genre-defining "The Girl from Ipanema.") Bonfá's early bossa breakthrough "Manha de Carnaval" from the film Black Orpheus (recorded in English as "A Day in the Life of a Fool") is among the many highlights here. Liberation Hall returns the beguiling Bossa Nova at Carnegie Hall to vinyl in a 180-gram pressing limited to 2,500 copies. Randy Perry has remastered.
That's not the only big jazz release from Liberation Hall. The label will reissue RockBeat Records' 2015 CD release of Charlie Parker's The Long Lost Bird Live Afro-Cubop Recordings (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) for the first time on double 180-gram vinyl, housed in a gatefold sleeve with new artwork. The collection features 18 recordings from the saxophone titan recorded at various venues (Carnegie Hall, Birdland, and the Renaissance Ballroom in New York; Portland's Civic Auditorium; Kansas City, Missouri's Municipal Arena; and a Los Angeles studio for the Jubilee AFRS radio program) between 1945 and 1954, including such standards as "A Night in Tunisia," "My Funny Valentine," and "Night and Day." Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Kenton, Milt Jackson, Art Blakey, and Ray Brown are among the jazz all-stars heard on these tracks which emphasize Parker and his bands' groundbreaking Afro-Cuban stylings. The original CD is also being reissued with new artwork and a new sequence.
He's your Hoochie Coochie Man! Liberation Hall is paying tribute to a blues giant with Hollywood Blues Summit: Live at the Ash Grove - July 30, 1971 (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) from Muddy Waters. This previously unreleased set featuring "Got My Mojo Working," "Honey Bee," and "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" was recorded at the famed Ash Grove a couple of years before the club closed by Chris Henshaw of Wally Heider Recording. Muddy was accompanied by Pee Wee Madison (guitar), Calvin "Fuzz" Jones (bass), Willie "Big Eyes" Smith (drums), Sammy Lawson (guitar), Paul Oscher (harmonica), Pinetop Perkins (piano), and Shakey Horton (harmonica) for this torrid set recorded during the Blues Summit weekend.
Look for these releases at independent record stores tomorrow - Saturday, April 22 - on vinyl, and everywhere today on CD from Liberation Hall.
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