Late producer Sir George Martin is described as A Painter in Sound on Cherry Red/El's new collection of his Pre-Beatles Productions and Classical Influences. While Martin has been anthologized in the past, most notably on the unparalleled 6-CD set Produced by George Martin in 2001, there's always room for another one - in this case, an eclectic 4-CD journey that's largely far-removed from the rock which made Martin famous. The title of the set is derived from a Martin quote repeated in its
The Weekend Stream: February 4, 2023
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. Today sees digital reissues of Raw Power, The Chronic, rare Motown, unreleased music from a Cash family member and more. The Stooges, Raw Power (50th Anniversary Legacy Edition) (Columbia/Legacy) (iTunes / Amazon) Look out honey, 'cause he's using technology! The Stooges' seminal proto-punk
Release Round-Up: Week of February 3
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today! Carole Bayer Sager, Sometimes Late at Night: Expanded Edition (Iconoclassic) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Iconoclassic Records is bringing Carole Bayer Sager's star-studded 1981 album Sometimes Late at Night back to CD, for the very first time from the original Boardwalk Records master tapes. Featuring Burt Bacharach, Michael Jackson, Marvin Hamlisch, Neil Diamond, Melissa
The Living Word: New Box Sets Chronicle Wattstax in Full, 50 Years On
One of the greatest music festivals of the '70s is getting celebrated with an exhaustive array of reissues in 2023: Wattstax, the multi-dimensional Los Angeles celebration of soul, funk, blues and gospel courtesy of Stax Records. A half-century after the premiere of a Golden Globe-nominated documentary on the star-studded 1972 event, Craft Recordings, custodian of the Stax catalogue, will release the most definitive looks at Wattstax, most recently addressed in a 3CD box set in 2003 that took
The Weekend Stream: November 5, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. The latest features new and old soundtracks, EPs and holiday favorites and much more! "Weird Al" Yankovic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story - Original Soundtrack (Ear Booker/Roku/Legacy) (iTunes / Amazon) This weekend sees the release of "Weird Al" Yankovic's second foray into feature film: a
The Weekend Stream: September 24, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to discover - from quarter-century old R&B classics, a Fleetwood Mac heroine covering Buffalo Springfield, and an actor who sang enough to make you go a little mad. Stevie Nicks, For What It's Worth (Rhino) (iTunes / Amazon) The celebrated singer has recently been covering this Buffalo Springfield classic on her
The Weekend Stream: July 16, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to discover! This week features deep cut jazz, country and soul, plus some remixes of an '80s classic and a new, surprise comedic pop track by one of Hollywood's favorite funnymen. Kitty Wells, Kitty Wells' Country Hit Parade / Lonely Street / After Dark / Dust on the Bible (Decca/MCA Nashville/UMG) Hit Parade: iTunes /
The Weekend Stream: February 19, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to discover! This week we've got Depeche Mode on vinyl...er, digital, Roxette in Spanish and Shel Silverstein in rare form. Depeche Mode, Speak & Spell | The 12" Singles (Warner/Rhino) (iTunes / Amazon) Issued in 2018 as the first of nine (and counting) box sets featuring 12" replicas of every Depeche Mode single from a
Review: Frank Zappa, "200 Motels: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - 50th Anniversary Edition"
Frank Zappa called 200 Motels "a surrealistic documentary." Leonard Maltin described it as a "visual, aural assault disguised as a movie; completely berserk, freeform film...some of it ingenious, some funny, but not enough to maintain [an] entire film." Roger Ebert compared the surreal musical to the work of experimental composer Harry Partch before observing that it "assaults the mind with everything on hand...a full wall of sight-and-sound input." Zappa never wrote and directed another
Have Yourself a Merry Little Discmas...
Wow! And just like that, another year has flown by. Just a few weeks before The Second Disc hits its 12th anniversary(!), this Christmas Eve it is our custom to look back on the last 12 months and take some time to think fondly of the music, magic, memories and friends that made our lives worth living. As if last year wasn't unconventional enough, 2021 packed more pop, clicks, skips and distortion than the most misguided vinyl pressings. We got vaccinated, we got boosted, we tentatively
The Weekend Stream: December 18, 2021
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to discover! A quiet week before Christmas offers a new Bowie remix, rare soundtracks from Tangerine Dream and The Simpsons, plus a legendary funk label on Bandcamp. David Bowie, Changes (2021 Alternative Mix) (Parlophone/Rhino) (Spotify) Alongside a newly-announced 50th anniversary picture disc of Hunky Dory, slated for
The Weekend Stream: November 27, 2021
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to discover! Despite the Thanksgiving holiday (and recovery period from Record Store Day Black Friday) there are some surprises for lovers of rock, soul and soundtrack obscurities - check it out below! Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Live, New York, 1981 (Blackheart/Legacy) (iTunes / Amazon / Spotify) If you can believe
The Weekend Stream: October 16, 2021
Prince, Do Me, Baby (Demo) (NPG/Warner) (iTunes / Amazon / Spotify) A surprise release on Thursday for the 40th anniversary of Prince's Controversy (1981), the Prince Estate has issued a demo recording of "Do Me, Baby," recorded during the studio sessions for Prince's self-titled sophomore album in 1979. (As such, it sounds less like a demo and more like a studio version in league with that album.) It's a fascinating recording that again highlights The Purple One's genius - and it's also
I Hope I'm Funny: Omnivore Reissues Richard Pryor's "Live at The Comedy Store, 1973"
Earlier this year, Omnivore Recordings released a pair of albums from Richard Pryor, the rare artist for whom "legendary" is entirely apt and not at all hyperbolic. Pryor (1940-2005) pushed the envelope in life as well as in art - on film, television, and records. Following the expanded reissues of his eponymous 1968 debut album and 1971's Craps (After Hours), Omnivore has turned its attentions to another rarity from the five-time Grammy Award winner and pioneering
The Weekend Stream: April 24, 2021
While The Second Disc prides itself on connecting people to reissues and box sets they can keep on their shelves, it's no secret that listening audiences are also digital - catalogue music lovers, too - and our passion is connecting people to music from the past that they might adore. So we've introduced a new Saturday feature: The Weekend Stream, which focuses on hidden gems that recently made it to digital channels that might make your playlists a little brighter! Mark Morrison, Return of
Short Takes: "Fawlty Towers" Comes to Vinyl with Cleese Autograph; Judas Priest Plans Massive Box Set for Summer
Although only 12 episodes were made between 1975 and 1979, Fawlty Towers remains one of television's most beloved comedies. As recently as 2019, it was named the greatest ever British sitcom by Radio Times, and its magic has never been successfully duplicated. Three American remakes - starring Harvey Korman and Betty White (the pilot-only Chateau Snavely, 1978), Bea Arthur (Amanda's, 1983), and John Larroquette and JoBeth Williams (Payne, 1999) - all failed to recapture the spirit of the
Release Round-Up: Week of February 26
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Bob Dylan, 1970 (Columbia/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) In recent years, Bob Dylan's annual copyright-extension collections have become highly sought-after collectors' items and fodder for bootleggers everywhere. Happily, Legacy Recordings has opted to give a wide release to Dylan's 1970 set, largely drawn from the Self Portrait sessions and featuring his loose jams with George Harrison. This 3-CD set features 74
Heart and Brain: Omnivore Preps Spoken Word Releases from Richard Pryor, Allen Ginsberg
Omnivore Recordings is heating up this winter with a trio of spoken-word releases from two legendary and provocative figures, Richard Pryor and Allen Ginsberg. Richard Pryor (1940-2005) wasn't just one of the most significant and influential stand-up comedians of all time but also a genuine film superstar, an accomplished writer, an Emmy Award recipient, Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize honoree, and five-time Grammy Award winner. Omnivore Recordings is traveling back to the early years of the
The Second Disc's Guide To Record Store Day Black Friday 2020
Today's Black Friday shopping will likely look a little different thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. But one thing will remain the same: Record Store Day's yearly event. It's been a packed year with RSD Drops in the months of August, September, and October. Now, they're going out with a bang. Labels big and small will release limited-edition vinyl with the collector in mind. Whether you're after new music from legends, reissues of sought-after recordings, or unreleased rarities from the vault,
Release Round-Up: Week of November 27
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! To our U.S. readers, we hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and to our readers around the world, we hope you're staying safe and enjoying a lot of great music in these most challenging of times. Cee Lo Green, Cee Lo's Magic Moment (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Our friends at Real Gone Music have a Christmas-green color vinyl edition of Cee Lo's Magic Moment, the 2012 holiday album by neo-soul icon Cee Lo
The Second Disc's Guide To Record Store Day Drop 2, September 26!
2020 has been a bit of a rollercoaster and Record Store Day 2020 is no exception: once scheduled in April, it moved forward a few months, and is now spread out across three Saturdays in the summer and fall. The Record Store Day Drop in August proved a success and round two, set for tomorrow, September 26, is sure to please fans of all genres and eras. It's a diverse list full of exciting releases that you can only find through your local brick-and-mortar record store (or through their online
This Is The Life: Weird Al's Drummer, Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, On His New Book Of Photos
Ever wonder what it's like to be behind one of the most famous comedy musicians of all time? Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz literally knows - and, for the first time, he's getting to tell his side of the story. The versatile drummer, who's played on every one of "Weird Al" Yankovic's records and tours for the past four decades, is releasing Black & White & Weird All Over: The Lost Photographs Of "Weird Al" Yankovic '83-'86 through 1984 Publishing on October 27, four days after Al's 61st
Never Want It Badly Enough: The Second Disc's Top Tracks For Bandcamp Friday
Despite the challenges facing the music business amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there are some bright spots. On March 20, indie music service Bandcamp waived their share of revenue on all sales for 24 hours, allowing artists and labels to support themselves even more robustly. Thanks to impressive results ($4.3 million spent on music and merch, 15 times an average Friday's revenue), Bandcamp repeated the strategy not once, but thrice: the first Fridays of each month (May 1, which raised $7.1
Something Completely Different: "Monty Python Sings (again)" Receives Expanded 2-LP Reissue
On October 5, 1969, Monty Python's Flying Circus appeared on TV for the first time, and their unique brand of sketch- and music-based comedy has since become an indelible part of our culture. To celebrate their 50th anniversary, the surviving members of Monty Python will launch re-releases of their films and their landmark television series. They've also begun to revisit their classic albums with recently released reissues of Monty Python's Previous Record, Live At Drury Lane, The Album Of The
Earwig Music Unearths Trove of Chicago Blues and Soul on "Cadillac Baby's Bea & Baby Records: The Definitive Collection"
Chicago in the '50s was overflowing with skilled bluesmen, vocal groups, gospel singers, not to mention the mom-and-pop labels eager to make a hit off the artists. There are the now-famous labels - Chess, Delmark, and Vee-Jay among them. But the Windy City was so teeming with talent (and entrepreneurial hucksters trying to launch their own careers) that small, independent labels were plentiful. Earwig Music Company celebrates one such label in its ambitious new box set, Cadillac Baby's Bea