Features

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Classic Rock, Disco/Dance, Electronic, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock, Soundtracks

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Alexandre Desplat, Camouflage, David Gilmour, Judas Priest, Kool and the Gang, Leo Sayer, Liam Finn, Marcella Detroit, Norman Greenbaum, Peter Gabriel, Public Enemy, Sarah McLachlan

Release Round-Up: Week of June 27

June 27, 2025 by The Second Disc | 3 Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Bruce Springsteen, Tracks II: The Lost Albums 1983-2018 (Columbia/Legacy) 7CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 9LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Lost and Found: Selections from the Lost Albums (Columbia/Legacy) 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada More than a quarter century after releasing his first major vault project, Bruce Springsteen is back with a sequel that’s even bigger. True to its name, Tracks II: The Lost Albums 1983-2018 promises not just a wealth of…

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Formats:

Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray Audio, Box Sets, CD, DVD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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Classic Rock, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, Rock, Soundtracks

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Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Buck Owens, Clifton Chenier, Frank Zappa, Idina Menzel, James Taylor, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Melanie, Motörhead, Paul McCartney, Randy Newman, Robin Trower, Rod Stewart, The Bluebells, The Rolling Stones

The Weekend Stream Extra: A Guide to ‘MTV Unplugged’ on Paramount+ (Part 5)

June 22, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 1 Comment

Welcome to a special Sunday feature of The Weekend Stream, which takes a look at one of MTV’s great live music programs thanks to a recent reissue of one of its best-known episodes. We’re running a five-part deep-dive on every episode of MTV Unplugged that’s currently streaming on the station’s parent streaming network Paramount+! (Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 can be read here, here, here and here.) The turn-of-the-millennium shot in the arm afforded to MTV by a big-budget teen-pop explosion and the channel’s eventual 20th anniversary in 2001 – growth not immediately deterred by the explosion…

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CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming

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Latin, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock

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Alanis Morissette, Alicia Keys, Dashboard Confessional, Jodeci, Korn, Queen Latifah, R.E.M., Redman, Shakira, Shawn Mendes, Staind, The Sugarhill Gang, Wyclef Jean

The Weekend Stream: June 21, 2025

June 21, 2025 by The Second Disc | 3 Comments

Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. A classic film score gets remixed for a major anniversary; a modern jazz great reunites two-thirds of a classic rock band; and it’s funny how time flies for Tears for Fears. All this, plus morsels of news on potential reissues from Bruce Springsteen and Duran Duran, and two tributes to singers we lost this week. John Williams, JAWS (Original Motion Picture Score – Remastered) (Back Lot Music) (Apple /…

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Disco/Dance, Folk, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

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Andy Summers, Bruce Springsteen, Christian McBride, Duran Duran, Evelyn "Champagne" King, John Williams, Lou Christie, Preston Glass, Sting, Tears for Fears, The New Christy Minstrels, The Police, Yarbrough and Peoples

Release Round-Up: Week of June 20

June 20, 2025 by The Second Disc | 3 Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Christopher Cross, Christopher Cross: Expanded Edition (Omnivore) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Omnivore will offer an expanded reissue of the self-titled debut album from Christopher Cross, the unforgettable 1979 release that became a commercial juggernaut and propelled the unlikely star to the music business’ upper echelon. The CD or 2LP release features 11 bonus tracks such as the rare non-album single “Mary Ann” and a…

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Formats:

Box Sets, CD

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Classic Rock, Pop, Rock

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Christopher Cross, Cockney Rebel, Gregg Allman, Jeff Bridges, Joey Molland, John Mellencamp, Melanie, Natural Gas, Steve Harley, The B-52's

The Weekend Stream Extra: A Guide to ‘MTV Unplugged’ on Paramount+ (Part 4)

June 15, 2025 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

Welcome to a special Sunday feature of The Weekend Stream, which takes a look at one of MTV’s great live music programs thanks to a recent reissue of one of its best-known episodes. We’re running a five-part deep-dive on every episode of MTV Unplugged that’s currently streaming on the station’s parent streaming network Paramount+! (Parts 1, 2 and 3 can be read here, here and here.) The seventh and eighth seasons of MTV Unplugged aired in 1996 and 1997, which were sort of its last years as a regular program. By then, the show locked into a comfortable…

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CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming

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Classic Rock, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock

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Alice in Chains, Babyface, Bryan Adams, Chris Isaak, Hootie and The Blowfish, Jakob Dylan, Jewel, Oasis, Seal, Stevie Wonder, The Wallflowers, Tori Amos

The Weekend Stream: June 14, 2025

June 14, 2025 by The Second Disc | 6 Comments

Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. This week we’ve got it all, from Bakersfield country to Billy Joel on Broadway; actors who sing and singer-songwriters who act in short films; Tony Joe White going disco and Josh Groban’s hits going super-size. You’ll find something to love – we guarantee it! Wynn Stewart, Songs of Wynn Stewart (Capitol Nashville) (Apple / Amazon) After starting his major label career in the mid-’50s on Capitol, country singer/songwriter Wynn Stewart…

A Second Disc Interview: Timothy J. Smith Forges a New Path with SuperVisible

June 13, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 9 Comments

If you’ve been reading The Second Disc for some time, you know that one of our highlights is The Weekend Stream, our spotlight of catalogue material that makes its way – either first or primarily – to streaming and download services. The TSD team has the shelves to prove our love of CDs or vinyl, but the joy of discovering a lost classic or future favorite from the past is what really drives us, and The Weekend Stream is run in that spirit. And it might not run at all if not…

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Interviews

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Classic Rock, Country, Pop, Rock, Soundtracks

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Ben Folds, Cheap Trick, Wynn Stewart

Release Round-Up: Week of June 13

June 13, 2025 by The Second Disc | 3 Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Grateful Dead, Gratest Hits (Grateful Dead/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Rhino assembles a single-CD or single-LP, nine-song Gratest Hits [sic] from Grateful Dead, marking the band’s 60th anniversary with the original studio versions of such classics as “Truckin’,” “Sugar Magnolia,” and “Touch of Grey.” Read more here. Neil Sedaka, Sedaka’s Back [Expanded Edition] (Neil Sedaka Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Neil Sedaka remasters and reissues the 1974 Rocket Records…

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Formats:

Blu-Ray Audio, Box Sets, CD, Cassette, DVD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock

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Alice Ripley, Grateful Dead, Metallica, Neil Sedaka, Neil Young, New Kids on the Block, Oasis, Queen, Tom Kitt, Ultravox, Van Morrison

The Weekend Stream: June 7, 2025

June 7, 2025 by The Second Disc | 4 Comments

Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. This week brings posthumous recordings by Prince and Donna Summer, a new spin on Star Wars disco, and plenty of cast recordings leading into the Tony Awards this Sunday! And just a quick programming note: our Unplugged series is taking the week off, but will be back with some new and exciting Weekend Stream extra content very soon! Prince, “Free” (Acoustic) (NPG/Legacy) (Apple / Amazon) “The Vault is now…

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Blues, Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Disco/Dance, Electronic, Everything Else, Funk, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

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Albert King, Belinda Carlisle, Bill Evans, Black Eyed Peas, David Foster, Donna Summer, Frances Faye, Merry Clayton, Nicholas Britell, Pretenders, Prince, Rufus Wainwright, Sheridan Smith, The Doors, The Living Strings, The Monkees

Release Round-Up: Week of June 6

June 6, 2025 by The Second Disc | 2 Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Dusty Springfield, Longing (Real Gone Music) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Real Gone Music premieres a lost album from Dusty Springfield: 1974’s Longing. Produced by Brooks Arthur, the album features a number of singer-songwriter-oriented compositions including songs from Colin Blunstone (“Exclusively for Me”), Melissa Manchester and Carole Bayer Sager (“Home to Myself”), Janis Ian (“In the Winter”), Stephen Schwartz (“Corner of the Sky” from…

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CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Funk, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock

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Alden Shuman, Cynthia Erivo, Dusty Springfield, Eli Paperboy Reed, Joe Henderson, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Megan Hilty, My Chemical Romance, Pulp, Rick James, Seth MacFarlane, Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, War, Woody Shaw

The Weekend Stream Extra: A Guide to ‘MTV Unplugged’ on Paramount+ (Part 3)

June 1, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

Welcome to a special Sunday feature of The Weekend Stream, which takes a look at one of MTV’s great live music programs thanks to a recent reissue of one of its best-known episodes. We’re running a five-part deep-dive on every episode of MTV Unplugged that’s currently streaming on the station’s parent streaming network Paramount+! (Part 1 and 2 can be read here and here.) With rock music undergoing a transformation after the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994, MTV Unplugged continued to settle into institutional status. The show held court primarily in New York…

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CD, DVD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming

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Classic Rock, Folk, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, Rock

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Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, KISS, Lenny Kravitz, Live, Melissa Etheridge, Sheryl Crow, Stone Temple Pilots, The Cranberries, Tony Bennett

The Weekend Stream: May 31, 2025

May 31, 2025 by The Second Disc | 6 Comments

Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. We’ve got solo appearances aplenty: Bono, Al Jardine, Grace Potter, John Fogerty, and more new/old music – plus a new subscription service from Crowded House, a Barry Manilow music video, and a tribute to one of the undisputed guitar gods of his generation. Bono, Stories of Surrender EP (Island/Interscope/UMe) (Apple / Amazon) In 2023, U2 frontman Bono embarked on his first ever solo tour, promoting the memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One…

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Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Country, Disco/Dance, Folk, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

Release Round-Up: Week of May 30

May 30, 2025 by The Second Disc | 1 Comment

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Grateful Dead, The Music Never Stopped (Rhino) 3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 6LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada This live 3CD or 6LP compendium (also available digitally) from Grateful Dead to commemorate the band’s 60th anniversary includes 27 tracks representing every one of the venues in the 60-CD, 450-song Enjoying the Ride box set. Highlights include the title track from the Spectrum, 1978; “Scarlet Begonias,” “Fire on the Mountain,” and “Touch of…

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CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Country, Folk, Jazz, Latin, Pop, Rock

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Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Ferry, Gloria Estefan, Grateful Dead, Hue Park, Melanie, Rain Parade, Sufjan Stevens, They Might Be Giants, Vince Guaraldi, Will Aronson

Pryor Conviction: An Interview with Dan Schlissel of Stand Up! Records

May 29, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

If you’ll forgive the stupidly obvious lede, Dan Schlissel takes comedy pretty seriously. As the founder of Minneapolis-based Stand Up! Records, he’s carved a considerable niche in the music industry as one of the longest-lasting and most stalwart homes for stand-up comedy on CD, LP and many other formats. Schlissel, a first generation American whose parents came from Israel, first started the indie-rock label -ismist, which provided a crucial stepping stone to an up-and-coming band of masked alt-rockers called Slipknot, who’d become one of nu-metal’s pre-eminent acts in the late ’90s and…

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Interviews

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CD, Vinyl

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Comedy

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Richard Pryor

The Weekend Stream Extra: A Guide to ‘MTV Unplugged’ on Paramount+ (Part 2)

May 25, 2025 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

Welcome to a special Sunday feature of The Weekend Stream, which takes a look at one of MTV’s great live music programs thanks to a recent reissue of one of its best-known episodes. We’re running a five-part deep-dive on every episode of MTV Unplugged that’s currently streaming on the station’s parent streaming network Paramount+! (Part 1 can be read here.) The evolution of MTV Unplugged was not unlike that of the network itself. If those first years on the air from 1989 to 1991 were proof of the format’s artistic viability, the episodes recorded…

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CD, DVD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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Blues, Classic Rock, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock

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Annie Lennox, Arrested Development, Duran Duran, Eric Clapton, Heavy D, John Mellencamp, Lulu, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Nirvana, Paul Simon, Pearl Jam, Queensryche, Rod Stewart, Ron Wood, Soul Asylum, k.d. lang

The Weekend Stream: May 24, 2025

May 24, 2025 by The Second Disc | 1 Comment

Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. This week offers a trio of classic rockers advancing a cause through new tracks, rare covers and live material, plus a new take on Peggy Lee’s “Fever” and a pair of dance albums getting greatly, unexpectedly expanded. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Land of Hope & Dreams EP (Columbia) (Apple / Amazon) The Boss has been touring Europe this week. Perhaps you’ve heard about it: he had a…

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Classic Rock, Disco/Dance, Electronic, Folk, Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock

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Bruce Springsteen, Common, John Prine, Kanye West, Mick Jones, Peggy Lee

Release Round-Up: Week of May 23

May 23, 2025 by The Second Disc | 1 Comment

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Sheena Easton, Modern Girl: The Complete EMI Recordings Volume 1 (Cherry Pop) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Sheena Easton’s latest reissue collaboration with Cherry Red covers familiar ground in a slightly new way. Modern Girl: The Complete EMI Recordings, Vol. 1 is a 5CD set that covers the bulk of the Scottish singer’s first five albums – Take My Time (1981), You Could Have Been with Me (1981), Madness, Money and Music (1982), Best Kept Secret (1983), and the…

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Chicago, Don Felder, Green Day, Howard Jones, Melanie, Sheena Easton, Sparks, Suede

The Weekend Stream Extra: A Guide to ‘MTV Unplugged’ on Paramount+ (Part 1)

May 18, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 9 Comments

Welcome to a special Sunday feature of The Weekend Stream, which takes a look at one of MTV’s great live music programs thanks to a recent reissue of one of its best-known episodes. We’re kicking off a five-part deep-dive on every episode of MTV Unplugged that’s currently streaming on the station’s parent streaming network Paramount+! If the music video was the most significant concept MTV introduced back in 1981, the word “unplugged” might come in a close second. In 1989, as the cable station began slowly diversifying their blocks of video programming –…

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CD, DVD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming

Genres:

Blues, Classic Rock, Folk, Pop, Rock

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Aerosmith, Crowded House, Daryl Hall and John Oates, Elton John, Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, Neil Finn, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Sinead O'Connor, Sting, The Allman Brothers Band, The Beatles, The Church, The Police, The Smithereens, Tim Finn

The Weekend Stream: May 17, 2025

May 17, 2025 by The Second Disc | 4 Comments

Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. A positively packed volume offers legends of pop, rock and country revisiting and interpreting some classic tracks; catalogue favorites from Britney to Sheena and Connie to Katrina; intriguing film scores and show tunes; and remembrances of a few legends we lost this week. Steve Perry & Willie Nelson, “Faithfully” (Dark Horse) (Apple / Amazon) One of rock’s most recognizable voices joins forces with country’s most enduring living icon! Former Journey…

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Blues, CCM, Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Country, Disco/Dance, Latin, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

Release Round-Up: Week of May 16

May 16, 2025 by The Second Disc | 6 Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Status Quo, Live! Deluxe Edition (Edsel) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) A deluxe edition of Status Quo’s first concert album will pair the original album – never a favorite of the band’s leader Francis Rossi – with the full, newly-remixed shows that it was assembled from, all under the supervision of the band. Working with Statua Quo and engineer Andy Gamble at AVP Productions, the newly-expanded Live! pairs a remaster of…

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Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Jazz, Pop, Rock

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Chet Baker, David Sancious, Dire Straits, Hozier, Status Quo

The Weekend Stream: May 10, 2025

May 10, 2025 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. This week, classic rock icons celebrate their live history, a modern music icon gets serious, a master of horror films (and soundtracks) revisits his first non-movie music and a former folk duo open their vault. The Doors, Live in Pittsburgh 1970 / Live in Philadelphia ’70 / Live in Detroit (Bright Midnight/Rhino) Pittsburgh: Apple / Amazon Philadelphia: Apple / Amazon Detroit: Apple / Amazon The Doors have been issuing live sets from their 25-year-old…

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Classic Rock, Electronic, Folk, Rock

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Fiona Apple, John Carpenter, The Civil Wars, The Doors

Release Round-Up: Week of May 9

May 9, 2025 by The Second Disc | 2 Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today! As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Jackie DeShannon, Love Forever: Demo Recordings 1966-1968 (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Jackie DeShannon signed with Liberty Records and Metric Music in 1960 as a performer and songwriter. Her big break would come in 1964 when she would open for The Beatles on their first U.S. tour. The next year she would record Bacharach and David’s “What the World Needs Now is Love” and her recording…

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Formats:

CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Blues, Classic Rock, Everything Else, Funk, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

Tags:

Bob James, Béla Fleck, Dave Koz, Eric Clapton, Gershon Kingsley, INXS, Jackie DeShannon, Jesse Ed Davis, Lamb, Nellie McKay, Petula Clark, Rilo Kiley, Rod McKuen, Sly and the Family Stone, Tyketto, Wang Chung

Never Gonna Be the Same: A Conversation with Gary Clark of Danny Wilson

May 7, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

The best known hit of his band begins with “Everything is wonderful / being here is heavenly…” and perhaps no line better sums up the experience of hearing a song by Gary Clark. The Scottish singer/songwriter formed the trio Danny Wilson with his brother Kit and bassist Ged Grimes in the mid-’80s, eventually scoring a hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1987 and 1988 with the sublime “Mary’s Prayer.” While it’s easy to place Danny Wilson in the same British sophisti-pop continuum that yielded records by the likes of The…

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Interviews

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CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming

Genres:

Pop, Rock, Soundtracks

Tags:

Danny Wilson, Gary Clark

The Weekend Stream: May 3, 2025

May 3, 2025 by The Second Disc | No Comments

Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. We’ve got a real party mix for you this week: alt-rock, soft rock, classic rock (in Spanish!), post-hardcore, funk, Barbra Streisand – you name it, we’re spinning it! R.E.M., Radio Free Europe 2025 EP (Craft) (Apple / Amazon / Bandcamp) The legendary Athens, Georgia rockers have a special, timely treat for fans this weekend. With the real and nonpartisan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s grants under fire from the current presidential…

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