In the spring of 2004, my junior year of high school, I enrolled in an elective that was split between Theatre Arts one semester and Analyzing Cinema the next. One of the more polarizing films shown in class was Sergio Leone's epic Western The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - the class of 16 and 17-year-olds didn't entirely jibe with the lengthy takes, surreal logic (complete with characters surprised by events that couldn't be seen within the frame), or the score, which was firmly Western in terms
Dancing Again: What To Expect for Record Store Day's RSD Drops Day 1, August 29
As the COVID 19 outbreak continues to impact our lives, it's heartening to know that some things are returning to some semblance of "normal," or as close as we can get to it during this unpredictable impasse. As we previously reported, Record Store Day has been split into three standalone "RSD Drop" days, occurring on August 29, September 26, and October 24. That's not the only thing changing this time around. It's been reported by Georgia-based shop Comeback Vinyl that the organization is
Summer Blessings: Super Picks for July's Bandcamp Friday
The Bandcamp Friday train keeps rolling - a light in the darkness for music lovers if ever there was one! On March 20, as the COVID-19 pandemic was putting the world on pause, the indie music service waived their revenue share on all music and merch sold, allowing indie artists and labels a chance for some steadier income as concert tours began to halt. The event was a resounding success, and has been repeated on the first Fridays of May and June, with another on June 19 (a planned annual
Release Round-Up: Week of July 3
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Willie Nelson, First Rose of Spring (Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Willie Nelson's latest studio album emphasizes love and positivity at a time when we all need it most. First Rose of Spring features new Nelson originals co-written with producer and longtime associate Buddy Cannon, as well as new songs from Toby Keith and Chris Stapleton and covers such as "Yesterday When I Was Young." Available on CD, LP, and
With Every Beat of My Heart: Cherry Pop Reissues, Expands Laura Branigan's "Self Control"
Laura Branigan became an overnight sensation with the release of 1982's "Gloria." Her throbbing adaptation of Umberto Tozzi's Italian hit not only reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 (held from the top spot by Lionel Richie's "Truly") but spent 36 weeks on the chart, establishing a new record for a solo female artist. A dance party anthem for a post-disco age, "Gloria" helped propel the singer's debut album, Branigan, to top 40 status and a Gold sales certification. It set the stage for
Release Round-Up: Week of June 26
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Johnny Cash, The Complete Mercury Recordings 1986-1991 (Mercury/UMe) 7CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 7LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada The Complete Mercury Recordings 1986-1991 will be available on 7CD or 7LP, 180-gram vinyl formats. The box collects all six albums Johnny Cash recorded for Mercury Records during that era: Class Of '55: Memphis Rock & Roll Homecoming with Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Carl
Juntos: Real Gone Preps Reissues of Airto's Sophomore Album and Errol Dunkley's Roots Reggae Classic "Darling Ooh!"
July 31 is sure to be a crate-digger's delight as Real Gone Music is set to release color vinyl reissues of two jazz and reggae classics: Airto's Seeds on the Ground: The Natural Sounds of Airto and Errol Dunkley's roots classic Darling Ooh! Seeds on the Ground was percussion master Airto's second album and his final release on Buddah. Following sessions with the likes of Miles Davis, Paul Desmond, Wayne Shorter, and Astrud Gilberto, Airto began a solo career that often found him
Chase Down That Crown: A Special Bandcamp Friday Shopping List
Bandcamp Friday is fast becoming as exciting a time as any other music street date. On March 20, as the COVID-19 pandemic was putting the world on pause, the indie music service waived their revenue share on all music and merch sold, allowing indie artists and labels a chance for some steadier income as concert tours began to halt. The event was a resounding success, and has been repeated on the first Fridays of May and June, with another to follow on July 3. This Friday, June 19, in
Release Round-Up: Week of June 19
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, Orange Crate Art: 25th Anniversary Edition (Omnivore) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Omnivore 2LP Black Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Omnivore 2LP Colored Vinyl: Omnivore Omnivore celebrates 25 years of Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks' beautiful Orange Crate Art with a variety of reissues. The 2-CD version boasts three previously unreleased bonus tracks on the first
Go Ahead, Have A Vision: Paul McCartney Prepares "Flaming Pie" Archive Edition Sets for July
Today, Paul McCartney fans everywhere have much to celebrate as the inimitable musician has announced the July 31st release of the latest volume in his ongoing Archives series - this one's a look back on Flaming Pie, an album that marked a sort of return to form upon its release in 1997. Inspired by the simpler, more immediate recording style that The Beatles used decades before, Paul McCartney returned to Abbey Road with some of his favorite collaborators, including Ringo Starr, George Martin,
Things I Didn't Know I Loved: Ghostlight Salutes Off-Broadway Icon on "The Liz Swados Project"
"I'm not a legitimate theatrical composer like Steve Sondheim, that sort of thing," insisted Elizabeth Swados to New York in 1980. "I'm not such a good musician, but I do have an excellent ear. People say I don't write melodic music. I was talking to a Broadway producer who told me I could learn to write melodies. But my orientation is different; I'm writing music that can't be dissociated from a theatrical piece, from the event itself." In fairness, one should note that the same affront - "he
This Calls For A Celebration: Craft Recordings Announces New RSD Dates, Adds Booker T's "McLemore Avenue" To Lineup
Recently, Record Store Day organizers announced that in lieu of a single-day celebration, planned 2020 RSD would be released across three months on three special "drop days." As labels begin to open up following the COVID-19 outbreak, we're excited to give you the latest. Late last week, Craft Recordings announced the full lineup of indie-exclusive vinyl that will be rolled out on August 29, September 26, and October 24, and the label has added a special 50th Anniversary edition of McLemore
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
Cash Money: The Instrumentals
Standard Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Digital Edition: Amazon U.S. / Spotify Cash Money: The Instrumentals collects 23 such instrumental tracks on digital platforms and 19 on vinyl. Many of these seminal cuts from the landmark hip-hop label have never before appeared on either format. Expect to hear crossover Hot 100 hits like Juvenile's "Back That Azz Up" (the uncensored version of the No. 19 entry "Back That Thang Up") featuring Lil Wayne and Mannie Fresh; Birdman and
Cash Money Records Preps Instrumental Compilation, Vinyl Due Later This Month
Last week, Cash Money Records founders (and New Orleans natives) Bryan "Birdman" and Ronald "Slim" Williams donated $225,000.00 to help the COVID-19 relief effort. Their donation was intended to help residents of the Big Easy pay their rents as they continue to cope with the devastation of the virus. Indeed, a social conscience has always been at the forefront of Cash Money's ethos; the donation was the Williams' second such contribution for coronavirus relief. Every year, they also sponsor
Euphoric Bells: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Invites Listeners to Another World With New Batch of Reissues
Just last week, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings - the label that tirelessly documents "the people's music" and houses the catalogues of 20 legendary labels - released the latest batch of vinyl reissues that have been excavated from the vaults and issued on quality vinyl from the original master tapes. Previous volumes include albums by Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Elizabeth Cotten, Lucinda Williams, Dave Van Ronk, and many more. The newest batch digs even deeper to unearth gems spanning new age
Release Round-Up: Week of May 29
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Ronnie Milsap, The Best of Ronnie Milsap (Craft Recordings) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The Best of Ronnie Milsap gathers up 12 of the artist's biggest hits from his first tenure at RCA, including "It Was Almost Like a Song," "Any Day Now," and "What a Difference You've Made in My Life." Craft's parent company, Concord Music, acquired the rights to 16 of Milsap's RCA albums from between 1977-2006 last year, and this is the first
Intimate Connection [Red Vinyl]
Long a favorite of electro-funk connoisseurs, New York-based Kleeer recorded half a dozen acclaimed albums for Atlantic. One of their most enduring LPs is Intimate Connection, which Real Gone Music is reissuing on "red telephone" color vinyl. With production by famed CTI alum Eumir Deodato, the dancefloor-ready grooves found throughout the album have influenced countless musicians in the last 35 years. In fact, Tupac Shakur not only sampled the album's title track (find it on 1995's
A Hot Summer Night [Various Formats]
CD/DVD: Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada link TBD 2-LP Colored Vinyl: Amazon U.K./ Amazon Canada Driven by the Music brings this classic concert from Donna Summer to CD/DVD and LP. It was recorded on August 6, 1983 as part of Summer's Hard for the Money tour at the then-recently opened Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, California. In front of over 18,000 fans, Summer performed material from the new album (the smash "She Works Hard for the Money," "Woman," "Unconditional Love" with Musical
State of Independence: Donna Summer Live Set Comes to CD, DVD, LP in July
Following its career-spanning Encore box set celebrating late superstar Donna Summer, Demon Music Group's Driven by the Music imprint will be bringing one of the diva's classic concerts to multiple formats. A Hot Summer Night will be issued on July 10 in both CD/DVD and 2-LP colored vinyl formats. The concert was recorded on August 6, 1983 as part of Summer's Hard for the Money tour. The She Works Hard for the Money album had just been released a couple of months earlier, in June, but Summer
Go For It: Real Gone Music Set to Reissues Cult Classics From the '70s and '80s in June
Real Gone Music is winding back the clock a few decades with reissues that are sure to please crate-diggers. First, on June 12, the label will release two mid-'80s cult classics - Kleeer's Intimate Connection and the Predator soundtrack. Fiftieth anniversary reissues of Eugene McDaniels' Outlaw and Fanny's self-titled debut will follow on June 26. Long a favorite of electro-funk connoisseurs, New York-based Kleeer recorded half a dozen acclaimed albums for Atlantic. One of their most
Supertonic: Mixes
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Crystal Clear Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada For the legendary Diana Ross, it's clear that there truly ain't no mountain high enough. The superstar made chart history earlier this year when "Love Hangover 2020" reached the top position on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart - making it her fourth consecutive No. 1 remix of a song that had previously been No. 1 on the Hot 100 in its original version. Now, that record-setting
In Memoriam: Little Richard (1932-2020)
The stupid but true thing to start off with is there was nothing "little" about him. I was born in 1987, a year after Richard Penniman was officially canonized as one of rock and roll's true pioneers, inducted into the first class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. From that point through the early '90s, he got to enjoy some unlikely fruits of becoming an elder statesman that aren't typically afforded to many at this stage in their careers. In 1986, his song "Great Gosh A'Mighty," from the
Message in the Music: Craft Recordings Celebrates Legacy of Stax's Gospel Truth Records
Craft Recordings is celebrating the Gospel Truth with a new reissue campaign dedicated to that Stax Records imprint. Every week, the label drops a digital reissue of a Gospel Truth title culminating in the vinyl, CD, and digital release in September - Gospel Heritage Month - of a newly-curated singles collection. Various digital playlists and lyric videos will also be unveiled throughout the course of the series. Stax chief Al Bell launched Gospel Truth in 1972, working in close coordination
Soundtrack Watch: Goldsmith Favorites, 'Legends' Uncovered, La-La Land Sale
Music reissues have been scarce over the last month or so, but our friends at various boutique soundtrack labels have worked hard to put out quality products before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Join us as we shine the spotlight on some of our recent favorites! Varese Sarabande has been working overtime, releasing three limited CD Club titles as well as a rarer, high-profile deluxe edition. In the latter case, it's a new deluxe edition of the soundtrack to 2014's Whiplash. The sophomore
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