This year, Chicago announced a first in their touring history. The band would play their second album, Chicago (or Chicago II), in full, at each concert to mark the group's ongoing 50th anniversary festivities. The celebration has continued via archival releases as well, and following last year's stellar Quadio, Rhino Records has just issued VI Decades Live: This is What We Do, the first-ever box set of live recordings from the band's storied history on four CDs and one DVD. Perhaps
The Second Disc's 2018 Record Store Day Must-Haves
Welcome to our annual rundown of Must-Haves for this year's Record Store Day event! Once you're through reading, let us know what you're most looking forward to picking up tomorrow at your favorite local independent retailer! Our list features just a sampling of our favorites from our friends at Legacy Recordings, Varese Sarabande, Rhino Records, Real Gone Music, Demon Music Group, Walt Disney Records, Omnivore Recordings, and more! Joe's kicking things off with five essential picks (in
RECORD STORE DAY PREVIEW! Minky Records Uncovers Early '70s Latino Soul from God's Children; Wrecking Crew Featured
"All God's children got rhythm," went a popular standard performed by Judy Garland, Stan Getz, and many others. In the case of the East L.A. group called God's Children, that lyric certainly was true. Music is the Answer: The Complete Collection is the name of their first-ever long-playing release, available tomorrow from Minky Records on CD and this Saturday on limited edition brown vinyl for Record Store Day. This holy grail of Latino soul and Chicano rock presents their released sides plus
"Nigel Lived" Again: Intervention Brings Murray Head's Rock Concept Album to CD and SACD
Few artists have bridged the worlds of rock and theatre as successfully as Murray Head. Singing the music of others, actor-singer Head scored two major hits on both sides of the Atlantic with 1973's "Superstar" from Jesus Christ Superstar and 1984's "One Night in Bangkok" from Chess. Far lesser known, however, is his discography as a singer-songwriter. Head imbued his own compositions with the same vibrant life as those famous songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny
Sounds From Beyond: Cherry Red Collects Psych, Pop, Rock, and the 101 Strings (!) On New Box Set
I Said, She Said, Ah Cid: With this delightfully offbeat release, Cherry Red's Grapefruit label has turned in one of the year's most intriguing releases. Ah cid, or acid, is in the air on this trippy 3-CD jaunt through the vaults of Alshire Records, the California-based budget label best known for the long-running 101 Strings series. As the subtitle - The Exploito Psych World of Alshire Records 1967-1971 - indicates, this set is focused squarely on the brief period in which Al Sherman's
Like Someone in Love: Ace Collects Complete Charlie Rich at RCA
Charlie Rich (1932-1995) finally achieved superstardom when his laid-back readings of "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl" ascended in 1973 to the top spot of the Billboard Country chart and crossed over to Pop - the latter to Number One on that chart, too. Although those songs kicked off a new chapter in the career of the man known by that point as the Silver Fox (for his mane of gray hair and wizened appearance), Rich's repertoire could hardly be defined by their mellow sound.
Review: Chris Hillman, "The Asylum Years"
Chris Hillman is surely one of rock's largely unsung heroes. A veteran of groups including The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Desert Rose Band, and supergroup The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, Hillman last year released the acclaimed album Bidin' My Time - only his seventh solo album. Produced by Tom Petty (one of the late superstar's last projects) with one foot in the past and another in the present, the LP reaffirmed the artist's deserved place in the pantheon. Now, Omnivore
Who, What, When, Where, Why: Rupert Holmes' "Songs That Sound Like Movies" OUT TODAY from Cherry Red [UPDATED]
There are songs that sound like movies/There are themes that fill the screen/There are lines I say that sound as if they're written/There are looks I wear the theatre should have seen... With those words, Rupert Holmes welcomed listeners into his singular musical world - one in which the only limits were those of the singer-songwriter's boundless imagination. In other words, there were no limits to Holmes' finely crafted, elaborately realized pop dramas. His 1974 Epic Records debut,
Love In Action: Todd Rundgren's "All Sides of the Roxy" Presents Complete, Star-Studded 1978 Concert
For his first live album, the 1978 double-LP Back to the Bars, singer/songwriter/sonic auteur Todd Rundgren returned to his roots with a collection of lean, tight, intimate performances recorded in the clubs of New York, Los Angeles, and Cleveland. This was Rundgren at his most accessible, playing his most universally beloved songs over his first decade of music-making, with a band including Utopia veterans Mark "Moogy" Klingman, John Siegler, and Willie Wilcox, plus his old friends from
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
Hold It! Intervention Gives Deluxe, Artist-Approved Treatment to Marshall Crenshaw's "Field Day"
Fans of Marshall Crenshaw are bound to have a Field Day with Intervention Records' recent vinyl reissue of the pop hero's sophomore album. This delightful release in the label's Artist-Approved Series has spruced up the original LP with a bonus 12-inch EP of additional content and new artwork, both of which have been given the thumbs-up by the artist. Producer Steve Lillywhite harnessed the power of Crenshaw (guitar/vocals), his brother Robert (drums/vocals), and Chris Donato (bass/vocals)
It Takes Two to Tango: Analog Spark Reissues Two Todd Rundgren Classics on SACD
Since the dawn of the CD era, Todd Rundgren's classic Bearsville LPs have appeared and re-appeared with regularity - yet they had never appeared in the physical format for which they're most ideally suited: high-resolution audio. Thanks to Analog Spark, that's all changed. The label has just released hybrid stereo SACDs of the singer-songwriter-producer's third and fourth Bearsville LPs - the career-defining Something/Anything (1973) and its daring successor, A Wizard, A True Star (1974).
Review: The Monkees, "More of The Monkees: Super Deluxe Edition"
January is barely over yet, but 2018 is already shaping up to be another banner year for The Monkees. Davy, Peter, Michael, and Micky have just met The Archies in a zany time-travelling comic book adventure, and fans have had the perfect soundtrack: the new, 3-CD/1-45 RPM single super deluxe box set edition of sophomore album More of The Monkees (Rhino Handmade R2 560125) - in time to mark 51 years since the LP was first released, in January 1967. This sixth installment of the long-running
For Your Love: Herman's Hermits, Yardbirds, Hollies Featured on "The Graham Gouldman Songbook"
Ace's latest addition to its Songwriter Series, Listen People: The Graham Gouldman Songbook 1964-2005, appropriately enough begins with a track written by Gouldman, "That's How (It's Gonna Stay)." But the track is also significant in that it was performed by Gouldman, as well - as part of his early group The Mockingbirds. Throughout his career, he's worn many hats - as a songwriter, as a band member, as a solo artist - and all of them are touched upon on this fine celebration of a largely
Holiday Gift Guide Review: INXS, 'Kick 30'
"All we've got is this moment," INXS frontman Michael Hutchence implores in the band's biggest American hit, "Need You Tonight." But in the case of the band's landmark sixth studio album Kick (1987), nothing could be further from the truth. The album, which sold more than nine million copies around the world and spun off five hit singles, has received no less than four expanded reissues in the last 15 years. In 2002, Atlantic Records and Rhino (who oversee the band's catalogue in North America)
Holiday Gift Guide Review: America, "Heritage: Home Recordings/Demos 1970-1973"
It must have taken a great deal of gumption, not to mention youthful hubris, for Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, and Dan Peek to name their band America - as if three teenaged army brats abroad in England could have possibly captured the spirit of their home country in all its complexities. Yet, capture that spirit the trio did, and today, some 47 years after they first entered the studio, America is still making music. Yet Beckley and Bunnell have happily been looking back on recent releases
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Elton John, 'Diamonds'
It's not untoward to ask exactly who the intended audience of an Elton John compilation is in 2017. The British piano pop legend has been releasing music for more than 50 years now, and has enjoyed a run of success that began early in the '70s and has yet to entirely let up. And in that time, there have been plenty of collections for fans of all stripes. His very first greatest hits album topped both the U.S. and U.K. charts in 1974 and prompted a sequel only three years later (and a third a
No Time To Lose: Music Pioneer Ralph Peer Celebrated with Box Featuring Bing, Desi, Buddy, Ray, Elvis, Bob, Nat and Others
The history of commercial recorded music stretches back over 100 years and has encompasses the stories of many artists and talents. One of the biggest figures in this early history was Ralph S. Peer. The A&R (Artists and Repertoire) and publishing pioneer might not be a household name today, but he made major contributions to many varied musical genres including blues, country and Latin. Sony Music Latin has recently released a wide-ranging, eclectic 3-CD box set entitled The Roots of
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Joe Jackson, "Summer in the City: Live in New York"
Intervention Records has been looking sharp with deluxe vinyl reissues of some of Joe Jackson's most treasured albums, including I'm the Man, Night and Day, and yes, Look Sharp! Now, the label has returned to the singer-songwriter-piano man's oeuvre with one of his lesser-known, latter-day efforts: Summer in the City: Live in New York. The album was recorded in August 1999 in the intimate environs of Joe's Pub at the Public Theater, and released on Sony Classical. It came as a surprise - and
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Johnny Mathis, "The Voice of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection"
I. Wonderful, Wonderful "A new sound in popular music," heralded the back cover of Johnny Mathis' 1956 debut album. That self-titled release on Columbia Records introduced a voice that's now instantly familiar: expressive, rich, creamy, seductive, and tender, with a clarion, controlled vibrato that set it apart from any other tone in the golden age of American song. As Columbia's George Avakian realized, Mathis' natural instrument was perfect for jazz - capable of navigating the form's
Review: "Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Sound Track" [Super Deluxe Box Set]
Listen to the ground...there is movement all around... Saturday Night Fever didn't invent disco...but in many ways, it epitomized the genre. With the December 1977 release of the John Badham-directed drama and its soundtrack album, the onetime underground dance movement which had been rising to the mainstream since at least 1974 became the mainstream. Disco's alluring blend of the gritty and the glamorous gained a face in the form of John Travolta, whose tough yet tender Tony Manero of Bay
Soldier of the Heart: Intervention Celebrates Judee Sill with Two New Reissues
Q: Who was the first artist to release an LP on David Geffen's Asylum label? A: It wasn't Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, or The Eagles - though all three all released albums in the label's first year of 1972. It was Judee Sill. Who is Judee Sill? In her all too short lifetime, the artist released just two albums, both of which revealed an unusual yet mesmerizing voice as a singer and a songwriter. Both of those LPs, Judee Sill (1972) and Heart Food (1973), have been newly reissued on
I'm a Believer: 7a Brings Micky Dolenz Concert with Orchestra to CD and Vinyl
Micky Dolenz always attracts a crowd whenever he's performing one of his hits-packed shows. Whether Dolenz is playing a large theatre or an intimate nightclub, the consummate entertainer brings the goods. Now, the Monkees specialists at 7a Records are unveiling a particularly exciting treat: a brand-new live album from Micky, and his first to be recorded with an orchestra. Micky Dolenz & The American Metropole Orchestra: Out of Nowhere will hit stores on November 17 in the U.K. (and one
Don't Think Twice: Ace Collects Rare Dylan Covers on "Take What You Need"
As one of the most influential songwriters of his generation - or any other - Bob Dylan's music has long transcended borders, physical or otherwise. The Minnesota native's music struck a chord in Britain, both on the concert stage (see: the famous "Judas!" concert) and on records, and his influence on British artists from The Beatles down can't be underestimated. It's no surprise that his songs were seized upon by British artists with a zeal equal to that of their American counterparts. Ace
Jeff Larson Reissues "Watercolor Sky" For 20th Anniversary
Fans of singer-songwriter Jeff Larson have long known that he's carved out his own niche in the realm of "California music," whether as a solo artist or with collaborators including America's Gerry Beckley and The Beach Boys' Jeffrey Foskett. Now, Larson is looking back with a 20th anniversary reissue of his proper debut album, Watercolor Sky, available on both vinyl and CD from Feral Cat Records and Vivid Sound Japan, respectively. With summer in the rearview mirror, now is the perfect time
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