If you’re looking for some reissues for the hardcore Seattle fan in your life, Sub Pop Records has recently released the early discography of the group Tad. Named for singer/guitarist Tad Doyle, Tad were one of Sub Pop’s first artists, and while their music sounded less punk and more metal (think Alice in Chains without quite as many hooks), they were a crucial force for the label. They opened for Nirvana on a European tour, and shared many of their studio collaborators (Jack Endino produced debut album God’s Balls (1989), Steve Albini…
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 liked the direction…
Release Round-Up: Week of December 16
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! The Kinks, The Mono Collection (Sanctuary/BMG) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The Kinks’ The Mono Collection brings together eight of the band’s classic albums in their original U.K. Pye Records mono editions on ten LPs, all pressed on 180-gram vinyl. The set includes 1967’s Live at Kelvin Hall and 1970’s original 2-LP collection The Kinks (otherwise known as The Black Album. A hardcover 48-page book including never-before-seen photos and new interviews with Ray Davies, Dave Davies and Mick Avory tops it all off. Read more…
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Paul McCartney Sets Archive Release of “Flowers in the Dirt” For March, Includes Elvis Costello Demos
Last August, Paul McCartney announced his return to The Beatles’ longtime home of Capitol Records, bringing all of his solo works beginning with 1970’s McCartney into the fold of the Universal Music Group-owned label. Today, the long-awaited multi-format Archive Collection release of 1989’s Flowers in the Dirt has been announced for March 24, 2017 via MPL/Capitol/UMe. Highlighted by four collaborations with Declan MacManus, a.k.a. Elvis Costello, Flowers in the Dirt featured productions by not only McCartney and MacManus, but also Mitchell Froom, Trevor Horn, David Foster, and Steve Lipson. Pink Floyd’s David…
Release Round-Up: Week of December 9
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Randy Newman, The Randy Newman Songbook (Nonesuch) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The Randy Newman Songbook box set marks the first-ever combined release of all three of the legendary songwriter’s piano-and-voice Songbook albums (including the new Vol. 3) recorded in 2003 and 2010 with producers Mitchell Froom and Lenny Waronker. All songs have been resequenced as one cohesive, thematically-linked listening experience spread over 4 CDs. Additionally, the box boasts five exclusive, previously unreleased bonus tracks: the now-standard “Feels Like Home,” “A Wedding in Cherokee County,” “I’m…
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Look Into My Eyes: Morrissey Announces Smiths Single with Unreleased Material
Every announcement of archival material by The Smiths is met (whether or not it deserves it) with those famous lyrics from “Paint a Vulgar Picture” as a reaction: “Re-issue, re-package, re-package / Re-evaluate the songs / Double-pack with a photograph / Extra track and a tacky badge…” Well, get those lyric cards ready, because Morrissey has recently announced a 45 RPM single from Warner Music U.K. featuring previously unissued versions of “The Boy with the Thorn in His Side” and “Rubber Ring.” Both songs were released on a single in 1985, with…
Release Round-Up: Week of December 2
Welcome to December, and this week’s Release Round-Up! The Rolling Stones, Blue and Lonesome (Interscope) Standard Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada The Rolling Stones return with their first studio album since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. Recorded over just three days in London, Blue and Lonesome returns the legendary band to its blues roots. Available on CD, LP and DD, as well as in an SHM-CD Deluxe Edition with postcards,…
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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 The Artist himself. And Prince 4Ever perfectly (and often frustratingly) encapsulates…
THE SECOND DISC’S 2016 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE IS HERE!
We wouldn’t want you to be left out in the cold for Cyber Monday, so we’re proud to present our annual Holiday Gift Guide featuring more than 50 essential selections for the music enthusiast in your life! We’ve filled the guide with box sets (such as the popular David Bowie title to your left!) as well as archival releases and holiday music favorites that make great stocking stuffers. So Just click here to access this year’s top picks! You’ll notice that the Gift Guide is in the same easy-to-use format as our Release Calendar, so you…
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Good Times! The Second Disc’s Essential RSD Black Friday 2016 Release Guide
From all of us here at Second Disc HQ to all of you, we hope you’re enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving in the company of family and friends. Of course, from this day which conjures nostalgic and warm feelings comes a celebration of a different kind with this year’s annual Black Friday – the day for consumers to start off the holiday shopping season on a mad, frenetic note. But 2016 is just in the latest year in which numerous retailers in the U.S. have made headlines by blackening Thursday, or Thanksgiving Day…
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Release Round-Up: Week of November 25
Happy Thanksgiving! Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Prince, Prince 4Ever (Warner Bros.) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) This release actually came out on Tuesday, but it’s worth a reminder here: this first posthumous collection from the late, great artist premieres one previously unreleased track, and includes a number of single versions making their CD debuts. Prince 4Ever is a 40-track summary of The Artist’s major works from his first album, 1978’s For You, to 1992’s The Love Symbol, Prince’s last release before he changed his name to the…
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Thin Red Line [Expanded Edition]
Varese Vintage brings the 1980 Planet Records debut of power-pop band The Cretones to CD. Though The Cretones were overshadowed at the time by Linda Ronstadt’s having covered three of their songs on her new wave-influenced Mad Love album, this reissue gives the four-person group headed by Mark Goldenberg and Peter Bernstein a chance to shine. This remastered edition boasts three previously unreleased bonus tracks: “Mood Vertigo,” “Quit It,” and “Taking the World with Kisses.”
Peace Trail
Peace Trail introduces ten new, primarily acoustic songs from the always-prolific Neil Young. The album, available on CD, DD and LP, was recorded at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-la Studios and features Young on vocals and guitar, Jim Keltner on drums, and Paul Bushnell on bass. It was produced by Young and John Hanlon.
The Independent Years 1983-2004
Punk icons Social Distortion are rounding up four of their albums for your turntable in a new vinyl box set. The Independent Years 1983-2004 fills in the gaps on either side of their major-label tenure from 1990 to 1996, with fresh vinyl pressings of Mommy’s Little Monster, Prison Bound, Mainliner (Wreckage from the Past), and Sex, Love and Rock ‘N’ Roll.
The Albums
Bon Jovi’s The Albums includes all 14 of the group’s studio efforts, from 1984’s blistering-glam self-titled debut to the just-released This House is Not for Sale, the first album without longtime guitarist Richie Sambora. Eleven of these albums have hit the Billboard Top 10 since 1986’s chart-topping breakthrough Slippery When Wet; of those, six of these albums (includingThis House is Not for Sale) have hit No. 1. The box will also include frontman Jon Bon Jovi’s solo albums Blaze of Glory (1990) and Destination Anywhere (1997) as well as a specially curated disc of…
Never Say Goodbye: Bon Jovi Vinyl Box Planned
More than 30 years after their debut, New Jersey’s Bon Jovi are still going strong, and to commemorate that strength, they’re releasing a heavy-hitting vinyl box set next year. The Albums includes all 14 of the group’s studio efforts, from 1984’s blistering-glam self-titled debut to the just-released This House is Not for Sale, the first original album without longtime guitarist Richie Sambora. Eleven of these albums have hit the Billboard Top 10 since 1986’s chart-topping breakthrough Slippery When Wet; of those, six of these albums (including This House is Not for Sale)…
Release Round-Up: Week of November 18
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up – the last of the major release weeks for 2016! The Beatles, Eight Days a Week (DVD or BD) (Apple/Capitol) 2-Disc Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2-Disc DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Standard Edition Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Standard Edition DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Ron Howard’s acclaimed 2016 documentary chronicling Beatlemania, Eight Days a Week, hits DVD and Blu-ray. The standard editions offer the film only, while the 2-disc Deluxe Editions add over 100…
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Reach for the Sky: Social Distortion to Release “The Independent Years” on Vinyl
Punk icons Social Distortion are rounding up four of their albums for your turntable in a new vinyl box set out this fall. The Independent Years 1983-2004 fills in the gaps on either side of their major-label tenure from 1990 to 1996. Founded in southern California in 1978 and led since then by singer/guitarist Mike Ness, Social D’s first album, Mommy’s Little Monster, was self-released in 1983. Five years later, after Ness kicked a drug habit and reorganized the band after a hiatus, Prison Bound found the group channeling Johnny Cash and…
Rock Candy Records To Launch American Label with Sammy Hagar, The Nymphs, More
Rock Candy Records, the brainchild of former music journalist and A&R man Derek Oliver, has just announced the birth of a U.S. arm. The American operation for Rock Candy will launch this Friday, November 18, with four titles from Sammy Hagar, The Nymphs, Salty Dog, and Tyketto. Amazon U.S. will have the Hagar and Salty Dog titles in stock on December 2. For the past eight years, the London-based label has celebrated rock and its various strains on a variety of reissues from the 1970s-1990s by artists including Toto, R.E.O. Speedwagon, Kansas,…
The Ultimate Collection
The Ultimate Collection features, on six vinyl albums, Evanescence’s full studio discography on 180-gram vinyl. In addition to Fallen, The Open Door (a double LP) and Evanescence, the box features the first wide release of Origin, a 2000 self-released demo collection; plus Lost Whispers, a rarities disc featuring four unreleased tracks, including a new version of Origin‘s “Even In Death.” A 52-page book of handwritten lyrics, artwork and photos rounds out this deluxe package.
Blue and Lonesome
The Rolling Stones return with their first studio album since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. Recorded over just three days in London, Blue and Lonesome returns the legendary band to its blues roots. Available on CD, LP and DD.
Release Round-Up: Week of November 11
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! It’s another big week for box sets from classic rock’s heaviest hitters, and much, much more… Bob Dylan, The 1966 Live Recordings (Columbia/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) 36 discs of music from Bob Dylan’s 1966 world tour – every recording of the tour known to exist – are brought together on this monumental new collection. Read our full review here! Bob Dylan, The Real Royal Albert Hall Concert (Columbia/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K./ Amazon Canada) This two-CD set culled from the box set presents Dylan’s historic…
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In Memoriam: Leonard Cohen (1934-2016)
Leonard Cohen, one of the most distinctive troubadours to arrive on the musical scene in the 1960s, passed away today at the age of 82. An uncompromising talent who mordantly titled his most recent album (released just weeks ago) You Want It Darker, Cohen continued to create, inspire, and provoke until his final days. His gifts of song and art, always infused with boldness, a deep spirituality and a keen observer’s eye, will always resonate with truth, honesty, power and passion. In tribute to Mr. Cohen, we’re reprinting our original 2011 review of…
Wake Me Up: Evanescence Vinyl Box Announced
The Bicycle Music Company, which purchased ’00s alt-rock label Wind-Up Records in 2015, will release a vinyl box set devoted to one of the label’s biggest acts: Evanescence. In the middle of the 2000s, the Little Rock, Arkansas-born Evanescence were one of the hottest rock acts around. Founded around the haunting voice of Amy Lee and the smart hard-rock guitar of Ben Moody, the band were a hit straight out the gate. Debut album Fallen sold 7 million copies in the U.S. and spent more than a year in the Billboard 200,…
High Noon: A 50-Year Retrospective
The New Rhythm and Blues Quartet (NRBQ) is turning 50 this year, and Omnivore Recordings is throwing the party! High Noon: A 50-Year Retrospective features 106 eclectic songs over 5 CDs including fan favorites such as the 1974 hit “Get That Gasoline Blues,” plus rarities, concert tracks, and previously unreleased recordings from the band’s varied line-ups over the years. Every track on High Noon: A 50-Year Retrospective has been freshly remastered, while the deluxe package boasts extensive booklet notes and previously unseen photos. While Omnivore is unable to release the box set digitally due…
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