What's that festive sound you're hearing? If it's fun, fresh, and a little off the beaten path, it might just be coming from Omnivore Recordings' recent reissue of The dB's and Friends' now-classic holiday party Christmas Time Again! (OVCD-152). Christmas Time first arrived as a holiday vinyl EP from the Chris Stamey Group in 1986. Seven years later, in 1993, the collection was expanded for a new CD release, with the track count jumping from seven to sixteen tunes. In 2006, Collectors
Review: "The Classic Christmas Album" Series 2015
Since 2011, Sony's Legacy Recordings has offered a crop of ideal stocking stuffers with the Classic Christmas Album series. This year's quartet of releases has a decidedly more modern bent, featuring artists associated with the '70s (Earth, Wind & Fire), '80s (a various artists compilation), '90s (Sarah McLachlan) and 2000s (Celtic Thunder). Three of these titles are actually expanded editions of previously released albums. Earth, Wind and Fire's Classic Christmas entry reprises last
One Of A Kind (Love Affair): Big Break Reissues, Expands "Spinners"
When The Spinners left Motown Records after nearly a decade, the vocal group had never scored a Top 10 Pop hit. They'd come this close in 1970 with the irresistible, Stevie Wonder-penned "It's a Shame" (No. 14) - one of many fine tracks recorded for Berry Gordy's empire that, for one reason or another, never crossed The Spinners over to major stardom. That all changed when Thom Bell - the multi-hyphenate musician, producer, songwriter, arranger and conductor - declared that he wished to
This Is The Love (I've Been Waiting For): Ace Releases "More Motown Girls"
Rarely is the sequel ever the equal - but Ace Records has handily disproved that with Love and Affection: More Motown Girls, a recent trawl through the vaults of Hitsville, USA. And not only is this follow-up to 2013's Finders Keepers - Motown Girls the equal of its predecessor, it might be its better. Whereas that volume featured both previously unreleased music and rarities, every one of the 25 tracks on Love and Affection is never-before-heard (save for five songs culled from last year's
Review: Frank Sinatra, "A Voice on Air: 1935-1955"
Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings' new box set Frank Sinatra: A Voice on Air (88875 09971 2) begins, appropriately enough, with the jarring sound of an old-time radio tuning in. The shrill noise quickly segues to the first of nearly 100 performances on four CDs - 19-year old Frank Sinatra, one-fourth of The Hoboken Four, singing the perky "S-H-I-N-E" on WHN Radio's The Major Bowes Amateur Hour. Here, then, is the future Chairman of the Board - before he sang for swingin' lovers, before he
Something Bad On Her Mind: Rare and Unreleased Timi Yuro Arrives From Cherry Red
There was only one Timi Yuro. The late, Chicago-born Italian-American vocalist was signed to Liberty Records as a teenager, bringing jazz and R&B influences into her emotional, heart-on-its-sleeve blue-eyed soul style. After having spent the first portion of her career at Liberty, Yuro departed the label in 1963. She was dubbed The Amazing Timi Yuro by Mercury Records for her Quincy Jones-produced LP debut there in 1964, but Mercury never followed it up with another long-player, opting
Do You Know What I Mean: Lee Michaels Celebrated On New Box Set, Anthology
The enigmatic Lee Michaels is back. No, the cult favorite singer-songwriter who once graced the rosters of A&M and Columbia Records hasn't recorded a new album; he's been happily retired from the music business since the early 1980s. But Michaels has given his blessing to a definitive new compact disc box set collecting all seven of his A&M albums originally released between 1967 and 1973 as well as a new single-disc anthology drawing on the same period. Manifesto Records' The
Review: Alanis Morissette, "Jagged Little Pill: Collector's Edition"
As time marches on, nostalgia of course goes along with it. So, with the passage of time, we've arrived at an era of nostalgia for the 1990s. Hard as it may be for some to believe, 20th and 25th anniversaries for major releases in the '90s keep occurring - and items are released in commemoration. Thus, Rhino has recently reissued Alanis Morissette's 1995 smash album Jagged Little Pill in a variety of iterations including a 2-CD version and a 4-CD Collector's Edition. When Morissette traveled
Review: Bob Dylan, "The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Volume 12"
I. Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan On Wednesday, January 13, 1965, Bob Dylan recorded "Love Minus Zero/No Limit," destined to become the fourth track on the first side of the troubadour's fifth studio album, Bringing It All Back Home. The album, released on March 25, would effectively alter the course of both Dylan's career and of pop music itself, featuring one electric side and one acoustic side. When he "plugged in" at the Newport Folk Festival months later on July 25 to the sound
Review: Beatles, "Beatles 1+" (Various Editions)
Yeah, yeah, yeah! That's the only logical response to the release of Beatles 1+, the modestly-named collection available today in a host of audio, video and combined formats. By presenting a newly-remixed and remastered edition of the familiar Beatles 1 album with a collection of remarkably-restored short films and video clips for each song (numbering 27 for the standard editions and 50 for the deluxe editions), also in newly-mixed 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround sound, 1+ offers an
Review: Faces, "1970-1975: You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything"
On September 5 of this year, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones reunited publicly for the first time in 22 years as Faces, paying tribute to their fallen comrades Ronnie Lane and Ian McLagan with a seven-song set benefiting a prostate cancer charity. The performance came on the heels of the release by Rhino of 1970-1975: You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything... (Rhino R2 550009), a box set-in-miniature collecting all four of Faces' long players in expanded editions plus a bonus disc of
Review: Dr. John, "The Atco/Atlantic Singles 1968-1974"
Dr. John's most famous single was titled "Right Place Wrong Time," but the one and only Mac Rebennack has certainly found himself in the right place at many a right time. One particularly halcyon period of the funky New Orleans piano man's long career is captured on Omnivore Recordings' essential new collection of The Atco/Atlantic Singles 1968-1974 (OVCD-149). Though the 22 U.S. and U.K. singles included on this collection represent Dr. John's earliest years as a solo artist under that
Review: Johnny Mathis, "The Singles"
A new 4-CD box set from Legacy Recordings and Columbia Records can be best summed up by the title of its very first track: "Wonderful! Wonderful!" Johnny Mathis' simply-titled The Singles doesn't bring together every track released by the legendary artist on 45 RPM; such an endeavor would take far more than four discs. Instead, it features the tracks originally released by Mathis on Columbia in the singles format - in other words, non-LP sides - between the years of 1956 and 1981, in their
Review: Tennessee Ernie Ford, "Portrait of an American Singer"
With three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and inductions into the Country Music and Gospel Music Halls of Fame to his name, there were few heights that Ernest Jennings Ford - a.k.a. Tennessee Ernie Ford - didn't scale. A mainstay of radio and television, Ford's decades-long association with Capitol Records yielded a rich catalogue filled with country, proto rock-and-roll boogie-woogie, western swing, pop and folk ballads, gospel, novelty records, blues and
Review: Pugwash, "Play This Intimately (As If Among Friends)"
One of the happiest pop-rock discoveries of 2014 was undoubtedly Pugwash's A Rose in a Garden of Weeds, compiling the Irish band's best music from 1999-2011. Now, the four-piece consisting of Thomas Walsh, Tosh Flood, Shawn McGee and Joe Fitzgerald is back with an all-new set recorded at Konk Studios and released on Omnivore Recordings. Produced by Walsh and Flood, Play This Intimately (As If Among Friends) features the same bright, vibrant spirit and unabashedly melodic sensibility that
Review: "Groove and Grind: Rare Soul '63-'73"
Got a few spare hours? You'll definitely want to put some time aside for a new box set that just might get you up and dancing... The four packed CDs comprising RockBeat Records' Groove and Grind: Rare Soul '63-'73 (ROC-CD-3255)- that's 112 songs, most of which have never previously appeared on CD - add up to one of the most exhaustive rare soul archives in the CD era, and one which you'll want to spend hours and hours exploring. As accompanied by a 112-page book with Bill Dahl's copious,
Pay Attention! On-U-Sound Reissues, Expands The Mothmen's Debut
The Second Disc welcomes back our roving musical correspondent Ted Frank! A recent visit to Chicago's Pitchfork Festival inspired Ted to revisit the debut album of short-lived British band The Mothmen, recently reissued and expanded on CD and vinyl! You'll want to "Pay Attention!" to this alternative gem. Having recently attended the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago's Union Park, it was a reminder of that expansive, mercurial sound that comes when the calendar hits June's solstice! On June 1
It's "Happy Lovin' Time": Ace Collects Rare Sunshine Pop and More
Ace Records has previously mined the eclectic catalogue of producer-impresario Gary S. Paxton, most notably on Hollywood Maverick: The Gary S. Paxton Story. That 2006 volume featured Paxton's work with artists including The Hollywood Argyles ("Alley Oop"), Paul Revere and the Raiders ("Midnight Ride") and Bobby "Boris" Pickett ("The Monster Mash"). Recently, Ace has returned to the archives of Paxton's Garpax production company with the delicious Happy Lovin' Time: Sunshine Pop from the Garpax
Review: Chicago, "The Studio Albums" and America, "The Warner Bros. Years"
In 1969, Chicago Transit Authority - a.k.a. Robert Lamm, Peter Cetera, Terry Kath, Danny Seraphine, Lee Loughnane, James Pankow and Walter Parazaider - released its first album on Columbia Records. 46 years and a total of 36 core albums later, the band simply known as Chicago is still intact with Lamm, Loughnane, Pankow and Parazaider. In the waning days of 1971, another band made its first appearance on records. America - the trio of Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek -
Omnivore Uncovers The Lost Soul of Carl Hall
Even the most diehard soul connoisseurs can be forgiven for not knowing the name of Carl Hall. After all, he left behind just a handful of singles on labels including Mercury, Loma, Atlantic and Columbia before focusing on a stage career. But thanks to Omnivore's recent release of You Don't Know Nothing About Love: The Loma/Atlantic Recordings 1967-1972, it's highly unlikely that you'll forget the name, and sound, of Carl Hall. Distinguished by both his intensity and his stratospheric vocal
Let's Go Disco: Big Break Gets Down With MFSB's "Universal Love"
Big Break Records is letting the love come through - Universal Love, that is! - with its new reissue of the third album from Philadelphia International Records' inimitable house band, MFSB. The only mystery about the 1975 album is how this No. 2 R&B smash (and respectable No. 44 Pop success, as well) has avoided compact disc release after all these years. Happily, it follows 1972's MFSB and 1973's Love is the Message into Big Break's catalogue in a newly-expanded and remastered
It's Clobberin' Time! Ace Unearths Gems From Motown's Fantastic Four
Last weekend, The Fantastic Four - the super-powered Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm - returned to the big screen, ultimately to disappoint fans. But Ace Records' Kent label has another group of the same name in the spotlight - and this one is bound to thrill! Joe Pruitt, Ralph Pruitt, Toby Childs and James Epps made their debut as The Fantastic Four in 1966 on Detroit's Ric-Tic label, notching a series of R&B and Pop hits (including 1967's No. 6 R&B/No. 63 Pop
Review: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Complete Columbia Albums Collection" and "The Concert in Central Park"
When Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel took the stage on April 24, 2010 at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, it's doubtful that many in the audience knew they were witnessing the end of one chapter in the story of Simon & Garfunkel. That concert marked the final time that the famous duo have performed together to date, but over five years later, the specter of Simon & Garfunkel still looms large over both men. It's no surprise; the question of a reunion cropped up almost
Review: Various Artists, "Here Today! The Songs of Brian Wilson"
The title of Ace Records' recent collection is Here Today! The Songs of Brian Wilson, after one of those famous Wilson songs off The Beach Boys' 1966 Pet Sounds. But the fact of the matter is - as this enjoyably diverse set proves over the course of its 25 tracks - Brian Wilson's music is not only here today, but will be here for many tomorrows. Unlike Ace's 2003 volume Pet Projects: The Brian Wilson Productions, this anthology concentrates on Brian as songwriter. But there are a couple of
Omnivore's Got The Knack! Three Reissues, Reviewed
"Pop is dead, bring a shovel!" So proclaimed The Knack in the acerbic lyric to the opening track of 1998's "comeback" album Zoom. Of course, the song proved otherwise, as the years between 1991's Serious Fun and Zoom had been kind to the band, a.k.a. Doug Fieger (lead vocals/rhythm guitar), Prescott Niles (bass) and Berton Averre (lead guitar/keyboards/vocals). Omnivore Recordings has recently reissued Zoom and its follow-up, Normal as the Next Guy, along with 2001's Live from
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