The sophomore album from Forest Hills, Queens, New York's Ramones, Leave Home, arrived in January 1977 on Sire Records, just months after the April 1976 release of the band's self-titled debut. Despite the title, however, Leave Home didn't mark a large stylistic leap or departure for the young punks out of their comfort zone. On closer inspection, however, it continued the growth of the band. Forty years later, it's easier to hear that progression than ever, thanks to a new, 3-CD/1-LP set
The Monkees Celebrated On New Benefit Release "Listen to the Bands"
With its latest project, 7a Records has invited Monkees fans to Listen to the Bands - yes, plural. This recent 25-track collection features modern, independent artists all tackling Davy, Micky, Mike, and Peter's classic songbook - and making it even more special, all profits from the limited edition album will be donated by the label to the Davy Jones Equine Memorial Foundation. Appropriately, curators Glenn Gretlund and Iain Lee of 7a have made sure that many of the famous songwriting names
Review: Prince and The Revolution, 'Purple Rain: Deluxe Expanded Edition'
Dearly Beloved It exists. It really exists. That may be the most astounding thing about the deluxe expanded edition of Prince's masterpiece Purple Rain (Warner Bros./NPG Records 547374-2). And believe me, there's a lot to be astounded by. This set features the first remaster of any Prince album in the compact disc era, a fully-stocked disc of officially unreleased tracks from the vault, a complete offering of sides (edits, remixes and B-sides) from all five singles released from the
Review: "Singles: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Deluxe Edition"
A Tribute Told in Vignettes... Well, I don't like to reduce us to just being part of the "Seattle Sound." I'd like to think of us as expanding more. Like, we're huge in Europe right now. I mean, we've got records... uh, a big record just broke in Belgium. -Cliff Poncier, Singles A Cameron Crowe film tends to have a "killer" soundtrack. Listening to a Crowe soundtrack is an intriguing adventure filled with carefully curated juxtapositions. In fact, the experience is a lot like the
Kick Out The Jams! Run Out Groove Compiles Best of The MC5 on Vinyl
Has the time ever been more right for a return of The MC5? The band from Lincoln Park, Michigan fused garage rock with elements of blues, jazz, and psychedelia to give voice to the counterculture movement of the mid- to late 1960s in as aggressive a fashion as possible. Between 1969 and 1971, the band released three albums on Elektra and Atlantic, anticipating the punk movement with fast and furiously heavy riffs. Run Out Groove, Rhino's new arm dedicated to limited edition
Review: Robert Lamm, "Time Chill: A Retrospective"
It's not much of a stretch to say that Robert Lamm is the heart and soul of Chicago. Since founding that seminal horn-rock band with Terry Kath, Peter Cetera, Lee Loughnane, Walter Parazaider, James Pankow, and Danny Seraphine, Lamm has contributed some of the band's most memorable songs including "Saturday in the Park," "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is," "Beginnings," "25 or 6 to 4," and "Another Rainy Day in New York City." Lamm's work has always been equal parts craft and
Holiday Gift Guide Review: "This Is Big Audio Dynamite" From Intervention Records
In 1982, The Clash has the biggest success of their career with the album Combat Rock featuring the songs "Rock The Casbah" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go." Of course, that's when things began to go wrong. It's one of the oldest story in rock: a band whose members are split in two directions between being "safe" and "commercial" or being "artistic" and "daring." The two sides of that argument for The Clash were being represented in the early 1980s by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. Strummer
Review: "Prince 4Ever"
Prince 4Ever (NPG Records/Warner Bros. 558509-2) is not the Prince compilation I imagined. I've had plenty of time to think about it, from the day Prince and Warner Bros. announced the end of their decades-long war with a new catalogue agreement that honest-to-God made me cry, to the day almost exactly two years later where we cried over Prince for a different reason. But even in my wildest dreams, something about a Prince catalogue campaign seemed ephemeral, not entirely knowable--just like
Review: Gerry Beckley, "Carousel"
Gerry Beckley celebrated his 64th birthday earlier this week, on Monday, September 12. We're marking the occasion with a look at his new studio album! One hardly expects the first verse of the first song on a new album from America's resident romantic troubadour, Gerry Beckley, to include the lines "Everything's turned to shit/No matter how I look at it/And I am running out of time..." But while Beckley is happily defying convention on "Tokyo" - the taut, rocking opening cut of his new album
You Remind Me Of The Sun: New Collections Arrive from Jeff Larson, Jeffrey Foskett
More than fifty years have passed since John Phillips so vividly encapsulated the California myth with The Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'," but the Golden State continues to inspire artists with its promise of eternally sunny days. The strains of "California music" are as varied as the state's regions, from surf to punk to psychedelia to country to metal. Despite changing times and changing tastes, however, richly melodic pop-rock has never gone out of fashion in California. Two
Review: Everclear's First Two Capitol Releases on Audiophile LP from Intervention
Joining its sonically and visually beautiful releases from the likes of Stealers Wheel and Joe Jackson, Intervention Records has recently released deluxe 180-gram audiophile pressings of Everclear's first two proper Capitol albums: Sparkle and Fade (1995) and So Much for the Afterglow (1997). These are the two albums that first put the trio of Art Alexakis (guitar and vocals), Greg Eklund (drums) and Craig Montoya (bass guitar) on the map and made Everclear a major part of the alternative
Review: Brett Harris, "Up in the Air"
The Second Disc welcomes back Ted Frank as he takes a sonic journey with one of his favorite albums so far of 2016, Brett Harris' Up in the Air! It may not be a reissue, but Harris' spin on vintage pop sounds make this release a must-listen. Listening to Brett Harris' newest album Up in the Air is an intimate experience. The southern storyteller sings to the listener with a bit of a weathered whisper and appears seasoned beyond his years. While the North Carolina-based singer-songwriter
Review: Jeff Buckley, "You and I"
In February 1993, the young Jeff Buckley entered producer Steve Addabbo's Shelter Island Sound studio in New York City to record a series of demos for his new label, Columbia Records. On these tracks, Buckley explored a variety of material as he found his "voice" in the recording studio. Never intended for release, the Shelter Island demos were discovered during research for the 20th anniversary reissue of the late singer's 1994 breakthrough Grace. Now, Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings
Omnivore Revisits "Christmas Time Again!" With Chris Stamey and Co.!
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
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: 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
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
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'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
The Ides of March Celebrate 50 Years with "Last Band Standing" Box Set
"Beware the ides of March," goes the famous admonition. Thankfully, Jim Peterik, Larry Millas, Bob Bergland and Mike Borch didn't heed the warning. Formed in Berwyn, Illinois in 1965 as the Shon-Dels, The Ides of March are still going strong 50 years later with their brassy blend of good-time rock and roll, R&B, pop and soul epitomized on the 1970 hit single "Vehicle." These rock and roll survivors and local legends around the Chicago scene have recently assembled a definitive box set
Review: Drivin' N' Cryin', "Best of Songs"
In a career spanning almost thirty years on both independent and major labels, Drivin' N' Cryin' has refused to be pigeonholed. The band, formed by Kevin (or Kevn) Kinney in 1985 has happily leaped from genre to genre, drawing on hard rock, country, pop, punk and other influences. Between June 2012 and January 2014, the band - now consisting of Kinney, founding member Tim Nielsen, Sadler Vaden and Dave V. Johnson - recorded a series of four EPs from which a tight, all-killer, no-filler
Review: The Pretenders CD/DVD Reissue Series
Chrissie Hynde, Pete Farndon, James Honeyman Scott and Martin Chambers may have taken the name of The Pretenders, but anybody paying attention soon realized that there was nothing "pretend" about this band - not its brash amalgam of British and American styles (Hynde was a U.S. émigré; the other three were Brits), not its unabashedly punk approach to a classic rock sound, not its effortless, cool swagger. 1979's Pretenders launched the band on a journey that continues to this day. It's been a
Review: Todd Rundgren, "Global"
Almost two years ago to the day, Todd Rundgren released his 24th studio album, State. The prolific singer-songwriter-producer hasn’t been resting on his laurels in the period since State. He’s maintained a busy touring schedule both solo and with Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band, and has contributed to numerous studio projects this year including the progressive collaboration Runddans with Hans-Peter Lindstrøm and Emil Nikolaisen, and Starr’s Postcards from Paradise (on which he co-wrote
Review: Ron Nagle, "Bad Rice"
Rare is the "cult album" that actually lives up to its mystique. But rare is Ron Nagle's Bad Rice. This artifact from the Mystery Trend leader and acclaimed ceramic sculptor, originally released on Warner Bros. Records circa 1970, has recently been given new life by Omnivore Recordings in a deluxe 2-CD edition that's an early candidate for Reissue of the Year. One part David Ackles, one part Randy Newman and the rest pure Nagle, Bad Rice likely wasn't helped all those decades ago by its