In the spring of 2004, my junior year of high school, I enrolled in an elective that was split between Theatre Arts one semester and Analyzing Cinema the next. One of the more polarizing films shown in class was Sergio Leone's epic Western The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - the class of 16 and 17-year-olds didn't entirely jibe with the lengthy takes, surreal logic (complete with characters surprised by events that couldn't be seen within the frame), or the score, which was firmly Western in terms
Summer Blessings: Super Picks for July’s Bandcamp Friday
The Bandcamp Friday train keeps rolling - a light in the darkness for music lovers if ever there was one! On March 20, as the COVID-19 pandemic was putting the world on pause, the indie music service waived their revenue share on all music and merch sold, allowing indie artists and labels a chance for some steadier income as concert tours began to halt. The event was a resounding success, and has been repeated on the first Fridays of May and June, with another on June 19 (a planned annual
Chase Down That Crown: A Special Bandcamp Friday Shopping List
Bandcamp Friday is fast becoming as exciting a time as any other music street date. On March 20, as the COVID-19 pandemic was putting the world on pause, the indie music service waived their revenue share on all music and merch sold, allowing indie artists and labels a chance for some steadier income as concert tours began to halt. The event was a resounding success, and has been repeated on the first Fridays of May and June, with another to follow on July 3. This Friday, June 19, in
Never Want It Badly Enough: The Second Disc’s Top Tracks For Bandcamp Friday
Despite the challenges facing the music business amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there are some bright spots. On March 20, indie music service Bandcamp waived their share of revenue on all sales for 24 hours, allowing artists and labels to support themselves even more robustly. Thanks to impressive results ($4.3 million spent on music and merch, 15 times an average Friday's revenue), Bandcamp repeated the strategy not once, but thrice: the first Fridays of each month (May 1, which raised $7.1
In Memoriam: Little Richard (1932-2020)
The stupid but true thing to start off with is there was nothing "little" about him. I was born in 1987, a year after Richard Penniman was officially canonized as one of rock and roll's true pioneers, inducted into the first class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. From that point through the early '90s, he got to enjoy some unlikely fruits of becoming an elder statesman that aren't typically afforded to many at this stage in their careers. In 1986, his song "Great Gosh A'Mighty," from the
From The Founder: Hello From Inside
It was on my 23rd (or 25th, depending on how you count it) day of lockdown when I once again had to do something we're all sick of doing these last few weeks: go on social media and see another wave of tributes to a favorite artist who's succumbed to the COVID-19 pandemic. This time, it was John Prine, an artist I freely admit is one of my many musical blind spots; but reading the tributes - some from friends, some from great writers, some from both - really underscores the profound
Thank You For The Music: On 10 Years of The Second Disc
Ten years ago, I was writing my first post for The Second Disc, a website about music reissues I thought was a pretty bright idea. A lot has changed since then. The first posts were written in the bedroom of a suburban New Jersey home - the house I grew up in and moved back into after post-college economic downturn made it the best possible choice to live. This post was written in an apartment in Queens that I share with a lovely fiancée who is very cool about the amount of box sets
Mixed Up, Torn Down: Releases from The Cure, Madonna, Miles Davis and More Form Rhino’s Record Store Day 2018 Schedule
Rhino isn't holding back this Record Store Day, planning more than 30 special vinyl releases for Saturday, April 21, to be sold at all participating retailers. Interestingly, several releases are companion pieces to recent general reissues, offering bonus content from different re-releases and box sets as standalone vinyl. Several singles and oddities are in the mix, from a 12" of The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Juicy," to a rare "short version" of Prince's 1999, featuring only seven tracks from the
Insatiable One: Suede Expand Debut Album for 25th Anniversary
In 1992, before Suede had even issued a single song, Melody Maker put the London group on its cover, deeming them "The Best New Band in Britain." With praise like that - and considering everything that followed - it's no surprise Edsel is reissuing the album as a multi-disc box set for its 25th anniversary in March. Suede: 25th Anniversary Silver Edition is the ultimate presentation of the group's chart-topping, Mercury Prize-winning, best-selling 1993 debut. It features the original album, a
‘Bring It On’ Again: Gomez Plan Deluxe Edition of Debut Album
British rockers Gomez are bringing out their critically acclaimed debut album Bring It On in a whole new way for its 20th anniversary this year, with a multi-format reissue in May and a North American tour to follow. While the group's debut album was a modest chart success, just missing the U.K. Top 10 albums chart and yielding only one Top 40 single, "Whippin' Piccadilly" - critics and fans alike made the LP a hearty slow-burner, eventually going platinum in its native England. The lo-fi
Let Me Introduce You to the Family: Rhino U.K. Plans Reissues of Early Stranglers Catalogue
As British punk icons The Stranglers ready a tour through the United Kingdom in March, Rhino's U.K. division are planning a new set of definitive reissues of the band's first seven albums, originally released on United Artists and Liberty Records between 1977 and 1981. Due March 9, these single-disc remasters handily supplant a series of expansions issued in 2001, with even more bonus tracks present this time around. Rattus Norvegicus (1977), No More Heroes (1977), Black and White (1978),
To Rule Them All: Inaugural ‘Lord of The Rings’ Score Gets Vinyl, Blu-ray Reissue
From the gentlest ranges of The Shire to the highest point of Mount Doom, Peter Jackson's epic three-film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings books is the kind of one-in-a-million success that you couldn't dare to imagine. Nearly 20 years after the inaugural film in the series, The Fellowship of The Ring, was released to theaters, Rhino Records is bringing back a crucial archival portion of LoTR lore on April 6: a generously expanded edition of Howard Shore's acclaimed,
Where Do I Begin: Quartet Preps ‘Love Story,’ ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and More for Latest Expanded Soundtrack Slate
The Oscars are almost upon us, and soundtrack label Quartet Records recently announced four archival score titles all tied with winning Academy Awards across the '70s, '80s and '90s. The oldest title is also the only of the four which actually earned a trophy for Best Original Score: the 1970 drama Love Story. An adaptation of sorts of a bestselling romance novel by Erich Segal (who turned his screenplay into a novel at Paramount Pictures' request to drum up anticipation for the film), Love
Cheech & Chong Light Up New Deluxe Edition of ‘Up In Smoke’ with Blu-ray, CD and Vinyl Soundtrack
Hey man, we've got some news for fans of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong: their breakthrough film, Cheech & Chong's Up In Smoke, is being reissued on Blu-ray for its 40th anniversary - and a deluxe edition will feature a trifecta of reissued product from Rhino Records. Comedians Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong had met in Canada during the '60s; Marin was there to evade the Vietnam War draft, while Chong, a native of the country, had been performing with his band, The Vancouvers. (The
Oh, What a Groove: Barry White’s 20th Century Sides Compiled On New Sets
Barry White's final album, released in 1999, was fittingly titled Staying Power--and with a career that stretched across three decades and produced some of the most enduring pop-soul of the disco era and beyond, it's as good as any a description for the late, great White's discography. Just in time for Valentine's Day, UMe puts fans in the mood for love with an assortment of new compilations devoted to his tenure on 20th Century Records Born Barry Eugene Carter in Galveston, Texas, the
The Chant Has Just Begun: The Alarm Expand Early Works on CD
Welsh alt-rock group The Alarm will reissue and expand their earliest recordings from the first four years of their discography next month. Eponymous 1981-1983 and Declaration 1984-1985 will hit stores March 16. Previously released in single-disc form by the group's Twenty First Century label in 2000, these 2CD or 2LP releases paint an even clearer, more definitive picture of this era of Mike Peters and company, including their signing to I.R.S. Records and highest-charting single release
La-La Land Slays Competition with ‘Buffy’ Anthology
If you're a fan of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Joss Whedon's iconic horror-comedy, La-La Land Records' latest release certainly doesn't suck. The soundtrack label makes Buffy The Vampire Slayer Collection: Original Soundtrack Recordings available today. This 4CD set features both music from across the seven seasons of the acclaimed TV series as well as Carter Burwell's score from the 1992 film adaptation that predated it. Whedon, a writer on Roseanne and a short-lived sitcom adaptation of
An Eye On The Residents’ Archival Reissues for 2018
For nearly 50 years, the art collective known as The Residents has challenged the sound and structure of Western pop music, a venture which began on record in 1974 with their debut LP, Meet The Residents. Now, the group has partnered with Cherry Red to undertake The Residents pREServed, a series of deluxe reissues of core albums in The Residents' catalogue with scores of rare and unreleased material. Known for their unconventional sound and style as well as their deeply secretive though
Review: Fleetwood Mac, ‘Fleetwood Mac: Deluxe Edition’
Take away all the artifice and ephemera of the new deluxe edition of Fleetwood Mac's 1975 self-titled album (Reprise R2 559454) and you're still left with an intriguing and endlessly challenging question: how? How did a British blues band with only fleeting chart success in their home country metamorphose into one of the greatest rock bands of the 20th century's back half, architects of 18 Top 40 hits and eight platinum or multiplatinum records? And how did they do so with their ninth lineup? As
Tale As Old As Time: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Added to Disney’s Legacy Collection (UPDATED 2/9)
After two years of dormancy, Walt Disney Records' archival series, The Legacy Collection, swung back into stores last year with an expanded edition of the music to 1973's Robin Hood. Now, The Legacy Collection is giving the red-carpet treatment to one of the studio's most popular films: 1991's Beauty and the Beast. After initial Amazon solicitations indicated that Beauty would be reissued (this revelation following a separate confirmation by engineer Bruce Botnick of his involvement in a
Hello Again: Rhino to Expand, Reissue Two Albums by The Cars
Following expansions of The Cars' Candy-O and Panorama, the classic New Wave group (one of this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees) will expand two more in their classic discography in the spring. Rhino Records will release 1981's Shake It Up and 1984's Heartbeat City with rare and previously unreleased bonus tracks on March 30. CD and double LP editions will be available, and will utilize the 2016 remasters overseen by co-lead singer Ric Ocasek as well as art direction overseen by
Cherry Red Bespoke Puts Vinyl Reissues in Fans’ Hands
It's no secret: sometimes, reissue fans and collectors know what they want better than anyone - market analysis be damned. U.K. label Cherry Red is giving fans the opportunity to forecast some vinyl reissues with their new Cherry Red Bespoke initiative! Similar to Run Out Groove's methodology, Cherry Red Bespoke invites fans to have a look at some possible reissue titles and vote with your funds as to which ones you'd like to have as part of your collection! Track selection and packaging have
Back to the Garage: Metallica Re-Revisits Classic EP on Multiple Formats
While you're waiting for the next exhaustive, extras-packed Metallica album reissue, the legendary metal group is reissuing a classic EP in April. Originally released in 1987, The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited found the quartet in a reflective mood, covering some of their favorite hard rock and punk groups like Diamond Head, Budgie, Killing Joke and the Misfits. The band was also looking forward: Garage Days Re-Revisited featured vocalist/rhythm guitarist James Hetfield, lead guitarist
Roxy and (More Than) Elsewhere: Zappa’s Legendary 1973 Shows Collected On New Box Set Released Tomorrow
Fans of the uncompromising rock composer Frank Zappa have a special jewel to add to their collections tomorrow: a definitive set chronicling his 1973 stand at The Roxy in Hollywood. The Roxy Performances is a 7CD box set that offers material from four incredible nights from December 8-12, 1973, as heard on 1974's Roxy & Elsewhere (in overdubbed form), 2014's Roxy By Proxy (which featured alternate performances sans overdubs) and 2015's Blu-ray/CD combo Roxy The Soundtrack. In addition to
New Coat of Paint: Anti- to Remaster Tom Waits’ Elektra/Asylum Catalogue in 2018
Having remastered his catalogue for Anti- Records spanning from 1999 to 2011 last year for CD and vinyl, iconoclastic singer Tom Waits will next partner with the label by turning his attention to the seven albums he released on the Asylum label during the first portion of his career. Waits and his wife and creative partner Kathleen Brennan have remastered all of Waits' studio and live output between 1973 and 1980 for CD and 180-gram LP, bringing many of the albums back into physical print
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