You got to love it when discoveries like these are made: Verve Select has delivered on their Twitter tease from last week with the announcement of a previously-unreleased set of Ella Fitzgerald in Japan. 'S Wonderful: Ella in Japan showcases the First Lady of Song in rare form over two nights with the Roy Eldridge Quartet in Tokyo in 1964. There are some great bits of historical importance here, including Ella's first recordings with pianist Tommy Flanagan and a jam session between the quartet
Reissue Theory: Duran Duran, "Medazzaland" and "Pop Trash"
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we focus on notable albums and the reissues they may someday see. With a new album by Duran Duran receiving deserved critical acclaim, let's take a look back at the band's years as a trio in the late '90s and see what gold could stand to be dug up from the vaults. As current electro-pop music goes, all you need now is All You Need is Now. Duran Duran's 13th studio album was first released independently (through the band's new Tapemodern
Kickstarting a New Reissue Project
(Note: I was remiss by not initially thanking Thierry Côté for linking to this story on Twitter. Thanks!) In the early days of remasters and reissues, the best way for an album to get expanded was to be a critical and commercial success. As time went on, that thankfully wasn't always the case; reissues could serve as critical reappraisals or reminders of undersold gems by popular performers. Gradually, as the majors tightened their belts, independent labels were on hand to continue work on
Short Takes: "Beauty and the Beat" Expansion, Another Wainwright Box, The Truth is Out There
The Go-Go's iconic Beauty and the Beat (1981) will be expanded in May by EMI, reports the band's official site. The band, which recently announced a summer tour to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the chart-topping album (which featured Top 20 single "Our Lips Are Sealed" and No. 2 hit "We Got the Beat"), will see several versions of the album, including a hot-pink vinyl edition and a double-disc set on CD featuring a vintage live set. Loudon Wainwright III's 40 Odd Years box set is due from
Coming to a Record Store Near You...
Mark your calendars if you haven't already, music fans: April 16 is the fourth annual Record Store Day! What started as a small declaration of independence for brick-and-mortar, mom-and-pop record stores in the face of industry decline has blossomed into a worldwide celebration with goodies provided by major and independent labels. And because lots of record store fans are also big into catalogue stuff like you and me, a lot of the RSD exclusives focus on reissues or anniversary repressings in
Wait for It, Wait for It, Give It Some Time: Howard Jones Box Delayed to April
If you've ordered the upcoming Howard Jones box set featuring remastered versions of his first two EPs plus a bonus disc of rare and unreleased remixes, you have more time to savor the anticipation than originally expected. While the set was due to ship at the end of March, a manufacturing error which necessitated a disc repress resulted in the box's ship date being pushed back to April. As of this reporting, no one is to blame. Jones' label, Dtox Records, put this statement out on their news
Short Takes: Sade Compilation Coming, More Nirvana on Record Store Day, Star Trek Box Split Up, More Live Ella Forthcoming
Epic/Legacy will release The Ultimate Collection by Sade on May 3. Intended to tease the band's long-awaited summer tour, the set will feature tracks from all the band's albums, from 1984's Diamond Life to 2010's Soldier of Love, and will feature three unreleased tracks, including a new remix of Solider track "The Moon and the Sky" featuring rapper Jay-Z. Those who pre-order the set through the band's official site will get exclusive access to ticket pre-sales for recently-announced dates
Depeche Mode Go Backward, Forward on Remix Set
It's always a killer prospect when a band still manages to go strong with over a dozen albums under their belt. Depeche Mode are one such ensemble, with 2009's Sounds of the Universe proving that the band is as fresh as they ever were some three decades ago. Their newest project, however, sees them dipping into the vaults for an expansive remix set, and longtime fans of the band will have reason to be excited. Remixes 2: 81-11, to be released in June, will cover the band's catalogue in remix
Back Tracks: The Police
On this day in 1978, A&M Records signed a bunch of blonde guys masquerading as punk rockers to their label. That doesn't sound like a blueprint for success, but those guys - vocalist-bassist Gordon Sumner (better known as Sting), guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland - were well on their way to becoming one of the biggest bands in the world, then one of the most lamented and celebrated after their messy breakup (and inevitable reunion). The Police were like few others,
The Impulse! Box Has a Track List (UPDATED 3/22)
UPDATE 3/22: You can now order this box set through Hip-o Select here. We have some more info on the aforementioned Impulse! Records box set coming from Universal in April, thanks to our friends at Record Racks. As previously mentioned, First Impulse: The Creed Taylor Collection 50th Anniversary box is going to compile the label's first six LPs by the likes of Kai Winding, Gil Evans, Ray Charles and John Coltrane, all of which were produced by label founder Taylor, along with rare and
Release Round-Up: Week of March 22
Aretha Franklin, Take a Look: Complete on Columbia (Columbia/Legacy) Before she was the Queen of Soul on Atlantic, she cut her teeth in the genre on Columbia. Eleven CDs and a DVD tell the tale. (Official site) Soundgarden, Live on I-5 (A&M/UMe) The recently-reunited grunge band commemorates their 1996 tour on this disc. (Official site) Sam the Sham and The Pharoahs, The MGM Singles (Sundazed) Every A and B-side by the "Wooly Bully" band in remastered monaural sound. (Sundazed) A Flock
Bowie Plays with "Toy" and a Thought on Bootlegs
Here at Second Disc HQ, this author has had a nuanced take on digital downloading, particularly as it relates to catalogue music. The hard, fast rule I tend to hold myself to is this: if material is excessively difficult or impossible to find on CD, then it's fair game. The original mix of Billy Joel's Cold Spring Harbor? The excellent vinyl rips I've found in my travels will stay on my iPod until Legacy releases it officially. (And I will happily buy a copy that day!) On the other hand, I
Pearl Jam's Orpheum Track List Revealed
Among the many treasures of Pearl Jam's forthcoming reissue of Vs. and Vitalogy is a bonus disc of the band's set at Boston's Orpheum Theater in Boston on April 12, 1994. That set is heralded by hardcore PJ fans as one of the best they ever did, and its inclusion was simultaneously a source of excitement and trepidation - the latter condition thanks to a fear that the show in all its glory would be trimmed down for CD. Those fears were confirmed when it was revealed that deluxe editions would
Roger Waters Reissues Coming in the U.K.
Roger Waters is bringing Pink Floyd's The Wall Live tour to Europe this spring, and to celebrate, Sony is reissuing a good amount of his work at an affordable price. On March 28, the compilation Flickering Flame: The Solo Years Volume I (2002) will be repressed. This set collected the best of Waters' solo material from 1983 to what was then the present, with two unreleased demos added to the mix. Unfortunately, this disc has a rather unsavory legacy, as it was released with a rather extreme
This Was the Sea: Waterboys to Release Vintage Demos
Here's another something we can share that Slicing Up Eyeballs expertly bought to our attention: a collection of demos from Scottish rock group The Waterboys. Considered the early forbearers of the "Big Music" sound - a style that would become synonymous with the band's first three albums and would describe other bands like Big Country, The Alarm and Simple Minds - The Waterboys, led by Mike Scott, achieved some of their greatest success with This is the Sea in 1985. Bolstered by the popular
Goldsmith, Horner and "Crusoe" Coming from FSM
As previously reported, Film Score Monthly's two newest titles are the premiere releases of three great scores: an underrated sci-fi epic and two TV-movies with music from legendary film composers. Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) is exactly what it sounds like: the Daniel Defoe classic on the surface of Mars. Paul Mantee is the marooned astronaut and Victor Lundin is "Friday," the Martian slave laborer who escapes and befriends him. (Also appearing as Mantee's doomed co-pilot was a pre-Batman
In Case You Missed It: Barclay James Harvest Revisited "Once Again"
Some four decades ago, Barclay James Harvest delivered one of their first great albums, and a towering achievement in the prog-rock genre. This past winter, EMI reissued the record in a manner quite befitting of its classic status. Once Again was the band's second album for Harvest Records, put out three years into their tenure with EMI. With notable tracks like "Song for Dying," "Galadriel" and "Mocking Bird" (the latter of which remains one of the band's most iconic songs), and the backing of
Back Into Battle with The Art of Noise
It's with great pleasure to find out that The Art of Noise's debut effort, Into Battle with The Art of Noise (1983), will be reissued as part of ZTT/Salvo's ongoing Element Series in April. And hardcore Art of Noise fans have a lot to be excited about this new release. The Art of Noise. Those four words signify a bizarre advent in '80s pop music - perhaps the ultimate marriage of music and technology (a staple of almost all popular art released that decade), a template upon which much of modern
Reissue Theory: Stevie Nicks Solo - and Beyond
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we reflect on notable albums and the reissues they could someday see. With anticipation running high for a new album from Stevie Nicks in a few months, we bring you a special look back at her first two solo albums - which have never been expanded - and that one record she's on that fans have been anxiously waiting for an official CD release... This post is dedicated with love to Stephen Sears, a good friend of The Second Disc. Today is his
Short Takes: The Kinks are Koming Stateside, B.A.D. Reissues Planned, MBV Insanity, More Live Dead
Those upcoming deluxe reissues of the first three Kinks LPs in the U.K. this April are coming to American record stores too! They've been set for April 12, one week after the British release date. (Thanks to MusicTAP for the tip!) Buried at the bottom of a press release touting the forthcoming Big Audio Dynamite reunion tour - no doubt spurred on in part by last year's pretty great deluxe reissue of their first album - there's a mention that Legacy is working with B.A.D. on more Legacy Editions
Five Disco Classics Coming from Big Break in April (UPDATED 3/16)
Big Break Records continues its busy schedule with five new disco and dance titles from the '70s and '80s coming to CD on April 25. The records in question are Open Sesame by Kool & The Gang (which spawned several danceable hits in the title track - heard in Saturday Night Fever - and "Super Band"); Pennye Ford's Pennye and Yarbrough & Peoples' Be a Winner, both cut for the Total Experience label in the mid-'80s; and the sole albums by Loose Change and TJM, both of which were produced
Run for the Hills! New Iron Maiden Compilation Due in May
Iron Maiden's latest studio release may be called The Final Frontier, but the band - whose latest leg of The Final Frontier World Tour is set to kick off tomorrow in Mexico and wind through South America and Europe through August - still have a few tricks up Eddie's rotting sleeve. On May 23 in the U.K. (and a day later in the States), the band will release From Fear to Eternity: The Best of 1990-2010, a compilation spanning their most recent two decades. Intended as a companion piece to 2008's
A Rumor That Would Put Me in a "State of Shock"
It's one of my favorite Michael Jackson stories: not long after Thriller, Jackson and Randy Hansen collaborate on a few songs together, one of which ends up on The Jacksons' mostly-forgettable Victory in 1984. That song, "State of Shock," is recorded as a duet with Mick Jagger and becomes the biggest hit off the album. The thing is, though, that Jagger wasn't meant to sing the song. Hansen was. And Hansen isn't even a real person. It's the pseudonym of one Freddie Mercury, the Queen frontman
La-La Land's "Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" Ready to Order
Just a quick heads-up to our film score fans: La-La Land's new reissue of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is now live and ready to order. Two thousand copies will be made of this set, which we originally posted on here. Order it here and hit the jump for the full track list.
Alice Cooper Readies Mega-Box Set
Only a day after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Alice Cooper is prepping a massive collectible for fans: a four-CD/one-DVD/double-vinyl box set capturing the band's early shock rock years. There are only some preliminary details about Old School 1964-1974, but here's what we can tell you. It's going to feature, across its four CDs, demos, live takes, spoken-word material and vintage advertisements; demos from the School's Out and Muscle of Love sessions are specifically
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