In reading about Cheap Trick on Web sites like the All Music Guide, one keeps finding aspects of the band's work described as "perverse." That's a weird way of defining it - not in the sexual sense, mind you, but as a means of describing how unusual they are - but I guess it fits well enough, for a number of reasons. In the Rockford, Ill.-based band are, visually, one of the most arresting bands ever; vocalist Robin Zander and basist Tom Petersson look like your typical gorgeous rockers, while
Hot Fudge Sundae!
Their repertoire was pretty standard for the late 1960s: a Lennon/McCartney tune here, a Bacharach and David song there, a Motown cover for good measure, even "The Windmills of Your Mind." But similarities ended there between Vanilla Fudge and their MOR-covering contemporaries. Over the course of five albums for the Atco label, the Fudge brought a psychedelic touch to the gestating sound of so-called "heavy rock" with blues-drenched, extended takes on familiar songs. Shadow Morton, famed
The Not-So-Finer Things
The announcement of Revelutions: The Very Best of Steve Winwood - a new compilation from Island available as either a single-disc compilation or a four-disc box set - should be exciting. Winwood is a hell of a musician whose illustrious career has seen him work with Blind Faith, Traffic and The Spencer Davis Group, not to mention his own successful solo work. But this set is boring, not just for its lack of vault content but because it's essentially been released before. The Finer Things was a
In Case You Missed It: Monsieur Hathaway
A little bit of old news for you, but a must-know if you didn't already: the folks at Rhino have put together Someday We'll All Be Free, a four-disc overview of soul singer Donny Hathaway's brief but powerful career. The set includes all four studio albums, a heap of live tracks, and seven previously unreleased recordings. Here's the catch, though: it seems that it's only available - as a 5,000-copy limited edition, at that - in France. While I had little to no idea of Hathaway's apparently
Back Tracks: Squeeze
If The Second Disc has any European readers, allow me to express my intense jealousy that Squeeze, one of the best British pop bands I can name, is embarking on a tour in your neck of the woods later in the year. It pleases me that Squeeze is not an unknown entity in the United States (the first Squeeze concert I partook in, at Radio CityMusic Hall in 2008, looked pretty sold out), but ask any casual or younger music fan and you'll likely get blank stares. This may change if you sing a few bars
Every Day Should Be Record Store Day
And perhaps it is, depending on how often you buy from one. The fourth annual Record Store Day is happening in less than a month (April 17) but already a lot of releases have been announced for the occasion. Best of all, there are some neat releases for catalogue fans out there, too. You can have a look at the full list here, but here are some of the neatest catalogue offerings coming on Record Store Day. Devo, Duty Now for the Future (1979) (Warner Bros.) As previously mentioned, Devo's
Back Tracks: Alex Chilton
A potentially embarassing confession: it took the death of Big Star frontman Alex Chilton for me to realize just what I knew about him. I knew his name was the title of a Replacements song (thanks, Rock Band), I'd known of Big Star thanks to the justifiable hype over last year's box set from Rhino and I'd known a handful of his most famous, very solid compositions that he either wrote or popularized ("Thirteen," "The Letter," "In the Street") through inevitable cultural osmosis (thanks, That
Back Tracks: U2
Is it inherently lazy to do a U2 post on a music blog for St. Patrick's Day? Whether it is or not, it's done for two reasons. First, since The Second Disc is all about reissues, it's worth tipping a hat to Universal's ongoing series of U2 reissues. They have been some of the best on the market in recent years. The packaging is nice, the content is comprehensive and groundbreaking (in other words, the fan gets all those hard-to-find tracks he or she is looking for plus a score of vault material)
Back Tracks: ABBA
Continuing the Rock and Rall Hall of Fame coverage leading up to Monday night's induction, here is another catalogue retrospective for one of the artist inductees. In his latest book, 2009's Eating the Dinosaur, Chuck Klosterman includes an essay praising ABBA for their intriguing critical status (contending that, like AC/DC, ABBA's work never operated near relevance or irrelevance, thereby guaranteeing that it will have a more lasting impact) as well as their somewhat unusual commercial
Back Tracks: The Stooges
We continue our ongoing Rock and Roll Hall of Fame pre-game coverage by looking back at another batch of reissue offerings from one of the inducted artists. The Stooges were one of those bands that were in the right place at the wrong time. Their music was raucous and energetic, their antics were nothing short of ostentatious. But when they rolled onto the scene in 1969, they really had no place in the rock music landscape behaving the way they did. Sure, other big rock bands of the day were
Back Tracks: Genesis
Continuing with our Rock and Roll Hall of Fame pre-coverage, we have the first of five catalogue overviews from our artist inductees. Genesis is one of many bands without a definitive entry point into their catalogue. As a five piece outfit composed of Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins through the early 1970s, the band put out some delightful prog-rock that was surprisingly accessible. (Considering that their live sets consisted of twenty-minute jams and
There They Go Again
Thanks to the ICE boards (where I'd read this a bit ago but foolishly forgot to post here) for pointing out the upcoming release of Callin' All, an enormous 4-disc box set from indie-pop favorites The La's. Despite recording only one LP and a handful of singles in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the band has earned cult immortality thanks to the irresistible "There She Goes." Their other material is pretty neat too, and even though they've had their share of reissues and repackagings over the
The Paradox
If you're an avid follower of the music business at large, you know the common narrative that defines the industry: once, record labels signed great talents and earned lots of money and influence off the back of that art. Gradually, that art became secondary to business and excess, and as labels became absorbed into bigger corporations and followed trends instead of setting them, music fans got increasingly put off by the product. By the time rapid technological advances changed the way we
Monoliths
I've been listening to Pet Sounds a lot lately. Maybe it's the dreary weather; whenever I put on some Beach Boys things feel a bit sunnier. But it's a heck of a record (as I'm sure most of you know) - one of those rarified few that's hard to chop down entirely. It's also fascinating that it's one on a rather short list of pop albums that have supported its own box set. The sprawling The Pet Sounds Sessions, released in 1997, chronicles the process of the album through alternate mixes, outtakes,
The Doves Cry Because The Vault's Not Open Yet
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eObzOkRXUZw] Music aggregator The Daily Swarm made a heck of a discovery today: seven YouTube videos of Prince rehearsing some of the hits, B-sides and rarities from the Purple Rain era in 1984. Given that Prince has famously come down on YouTube like a ton of bricks - threatening legal action against a mother who posted a video of her baby dancing to a few seconds of "Let's Go Crazy" - this definitely falls under the "get it while it's hot"
Back Tracks: Marvin Gaye
Our Valentine's Day weekend preparation continues with a look back at the reissue prospects of Marvin Gaye, one of the finest soul voices of the century (and, in my opinion, one of the most heartbreaking losses in popular music). It's quite interesting that Gaye's catalogue, split about 90/10 between labels (Motown and Columbia), has been well-serviced by both. Chalk it up to the fact that one of his biggest hits, "Sexual Healing," was released on the latter label in 1983. Take a look at the
"Raw Power" to Melt Faces in April
Fans of The Stooges, get ready for a rush: Legacy Recordings is reissuing Raw Power, one of the most iconic pre-punk rock records of the 1970s. And hardcore fans are going to drool over the goodies that are coming their way. The standard set is going to be a two-disc Legacy Edition (you know, the ones in a double digipak with a slip case). On the first disc is the original album as originally mixed by David Bowie. This is a really big deal, as the last time Legacy reissued the record in 1997,
Stayin' Alive
Those of you who were debating the merits of Mythology, the upcoming four-disc Bee Gees box set, now have a lot of time to decide to buy it. The box, originally slated for release last November before being pushed back to the spring, is now due on November 16, 2010. Update your calendars accordingly. The set is a retrospective look at the collective careers of the brothers Gibb, with one disc each devoted to Robin, Barry, Maurice and Andy Gibb. The track list (presented after the jump) features
Back Tracks: The Supremes
Introducing Back Tracks, a new feature where we take an upcoming release and introduce you to some of the other reissued works from the same group. Today, we start with The Supremes, whose first album, 1962's Meet The Supremes, is scheduled for reissue by Hip-O Select on May 18 (credit where it's due to MusicTAP for the date). The trio is much loved by Motown fans and staff alike. As such, Hip-O Select has dug lots of their treasures from the vault. Hit the jump to take a look at nine Supremes
Sunny Days Indeed
It may be snowing in my part of the world, but catalogue fans should prepare themselves to be on their way to where the air is sweet. That's right, kids (and kids at heart): E1 Records is releasing Sesame Street Old School Volume 1, a box set collating three classic albums by the Sesame Street Muppets. The box features Sesame Street: The Original Cast Recording (1970), Big Bird Sings (1974) and Bert & Ernie Sing Along (1975), all of which are making their CD debuts with remastered sound and
Reissue Theory: a-ha, "Hunting High and Low"
Here's a new feature I'm really excited about on The Second Disc. I'm calling it Reissue Theory (which was very nearly the title of this blog). Herein, I plot out what I think would be excellent plans to expand great catalogue titles. Using the best research skills I can muster, I'll try to put together the perfect playlist for that sorely missing deluxe title. First up is Hunting High and Low, the debut album by pop legends a-ha. Though their chart-topping "Take on Me" was the biggest
News Roundup: Rhino Releases, Ray Davies and More - 1/13/2010
Anyone worried about last year's report on the seeming demise of Rhino Entertainment can rest a little easier. Not only are they still afloat, but Rhino handmade, their specialty boutique arm, is actually offering a poll to bring back into print one of several limited edition sets. Speaking of Rhino, there are a few neat new online-only titles up for sale. There's Rod Stewart's Once in a Blue Moon, a semi-"lost" album of covers intended for release in 1993; an exhaustively comprehensive Wilson
At a Glance: Motown Never Can Say Goodbye to The Jackson 5
In posts marked "At a Glance," I'm going to try to assess any particular movement among a particular artist's back catalogue. To start, here's a look at one of the most recently popular catalogue artists - Michael Jackson - as seen through his early work for Motown. It is now nearly seven months since Michael Jackson died. His passing shocked the world enough to pay attention to his prodigious discography - the compilations Number Ones and The Essential Michael Jackson, both released by Epic,
Looking Forward, Looking Back: 2010 Reissue Preview
We're less than two weeks into a new year and a new decade, but 2010 is already shaping up to be a great year for back catalogue enthusiasts. What follows is a round-up of the best and brightest reissues already slated for the new year. An obligatory note on release dates: they're as always set to change. I base my reports on the excellent work at Pause & Play, the best resource for any music release dates you might be looking for. Hit the jump for some news on catalog titles by Elvis
In With the Old: 2009 in Reissues
Good evening and welcome to The Second Disc! Assuming you've taken a look at the page where I've explained this blog, I'd like to present a list of some of the best catalogue titles released to the public during the past year. This year was just as full of complaints about the demise of the music industry as ever (I guess part of this can be blamed on the general economic malaise gripping us all), but this really seemed to be a great year for reissues and box sets of all sorts. Two notes before
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