Forty-four years to the day after David Bowie first performed at Glastonbury (then known as the Glastonbury Fair rather than today’s Festival), Parlophone Records has announced the first in a new series of box sets which will eventually span his entire career. Five Years: 1969-1973, named of course after the opening track of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, will be available on September 25 in 12-CD or 13-LP configurations, containing all of the core material (ten albums’ worth!) officially released by Bowie during the first…
Release Round-Up: Week of June 16
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring the return of a veteran artist, celebrations of the renowned musicians of Nashville and Los Angeles, a classic Disney soundtrack, and much more! Various Artists, Dylan, Cash and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City (Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Legacy teams with the Country Music Hall of Fame for this 2-CD, 36-song companion soundtrack to the Nashville museum’s current exhibit chronicling Music City’s fusion of country of rock. One previously unreleased cut by Bob Dylan joins both familiar and rare tracks by Johnny Cash,…
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No Time To Cry: Rhino Celebrates The Sisters of Mercy With Vinyl Box
Among the many titles celebrating a 30th anniversary this year is the album debut from the British rock band The Sisters of Mercy. To commemorate that milestone, Rhino Records has just announced a new 4-LP box set due for release on July 24: the First and Last and Always Vinyl Collection. Coming out of the independent U.K. rock scene of the early 1980s, The Sisters of Mercy signed their record deal with WEA in 1983 and their first album was released two years later: First and Last and Always. However, behind the scenes problems…
The Monsanto Years
Neil Young teams with Promise of the Real (Lukas Nelson (vocals/guitar), Micah Nelson (guitar, vocals), Anthony Logerfo (drums), Corey McCormick (bass) and Tato Melgar (percussion)) for this hard-rocking album drawing on environmental and ecological themes. Available as a CD/DVD edition and on digital platforms including, of course, Young’s Pono.
Remember When The Music: Bottom Line Presents Unheard Harry Chapin, Reissues Janis Ian and More
The new Bottom Line Archive Series, which launched earlier this year with volumes from The Brecker Brothers, Willie Nile, and Kenny Rankin, continues on June 30 with a new wave of titles all recorded at the late, great New York venue once located on West 4th Street in Greenwich Village. Concerts from Harry Chapin and Janis Ian, plus two various-artists compilations, will be released on Bottom Line Records on that date. Legendary singer-songwriter Harry Chapin’s January 1981 set at The Bottom Line was released as a 2-CD set in 1998 as part…
Jim Peterik, Don Dixon, Jules Shear, Justin Currie, Julian Velard Fight Cancer on “You Can’t Live on Love Alone”
Many of you reading this might know Popdose as one of your favorite pop-culture hangouts on the Internet. Recently, our good friends at Popdose have curated a special digital-only release that not only features an array of remarkable artists, but helps a great cause, too. You Can’t Live on Love Alone: Songs for the Fight Against Multiple Myeloma arrived on Amazon last week, on June 2. This 19-track compendium is headlined by artists ranging from veterans (Jim Peterik of The Ides of March and Survivor; Justin Currie of Del Amitri; Kenny Loggins,…
Drifted: In the Beginning and Beyond
Omnivore collects two discs’ worth of music from the Los Angeles-to-New-Orleans musical collective The Continental Drifters, whose roster has included Vicki Peterson (Bangles), Susan Cowsill (The Cowsills), Peter Holsapple (The dBs, R.E.M.), and many more–including the only member who has been with them from the beginning, Mark Walton (Giant Sand, The Dream Syndicate). This definitive anthology presents, per the label, rarities and previously unreleased music which add up to an “inspiring blend of both original and seminal cover songs with a southern fried blue-eyed soul approach that couldn’t be beat.”
Days of Wine and Roses
1982’s album debut from Paisley Underground rockers The Dream Syndicate arrives in remastered and expanded form via Omnivore, with six previously unreleased rehearsal recordings!
Release Round-Up: Week of June 9
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, headlined by the long-awaited return of The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers in a variety of formats and editions! The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers (UMe) 3-CD/1-DVD Super Deluxe Edition Box Set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 2-CD/1-DVD Deluxe Edition Box Set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 2-CD Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 1-CD Standard Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 2-LP Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Digital Download: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. The Rolling Stones revisit their 1971 classic featuring “Wild Horses,” “Brown…
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The Bad Seeds: “Nick Cave Heard Them Here First” Features Dylan, Cash, Pitney, More
Ace Records has an unusual name on its roster: that of Australian musical iconoclast Nick Cave. An artist who’s lived up to his description as rock’s “Prince of Darkness,” Cave has nonetheless drawn on a wide array of influences in crafting his own intense, personal and powerful songbook. Ace has rounded up the original versions of 25 songs recorded over the years by the artist on the collection entitled Nick Cave Heard Them Here First. This anthology follows the label’s similar sets for The Ramones, The New York Dolls, David Bowie, Elvis…
You Can’t Ever Come Down: Esoteric Revisits “The American Metaphysical Circus”
“We were firmly in the American tradition of artistic and political radicalism intermixed with patriotism, and to thus establish a psychic ‘distance’ from The Beatles.” So stated Joseph Byrd in a 2004 interview excerpted in the liner notes to Esoteric Recordings’ new reissue of 1969’s The American Metaphysical Circus. The album, credited to Joe Byrd and the Hippies, exemplified the adventuresome spirit of the era which led the venerable Columbia Records label to sign a number of experimental artists to the home of Simon and Garfunkel and Barbra Streisand. Byrd’s previous effort for…
Release Round-Up: Week of May 26
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! We hope all of our U.S. readers enjoyed a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. And now, without further ado, onto the music! Yes, Progeny: Seven Shows from Seventy-Two (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Finally, after a brief delay, Progeny is here! This whopping 14-CD box captures seven complete concerts from Yes circa 1972 – the same tour leading up to the performances preserved on Yessongs. For those who don’t need 14 discs, 2-CD and 3-LP Highlights distillations are also available (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) !…
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Midnight Mission: Expanded Edition
The Textones’ 1984 debut album, featuring appearances by Gene Clark, Ry Cooder, Don Henley, and co-producer Barry Goldberg, is expanded by Omnivore in a new edition with 5 bonus tracks – including 2 previously unissued live cuts!
Cedar Creek: Expanded Edition
The second album by Carla Olson’s band The Textones (featuring guest appearances by Ian McLagan, Howie Epstein and The Waters) gets expanded by Omnivore with an eight-song concert from Santa Cruz, CA recorded on November 20, 1987.
Classic Quadrophenia
Pete Townshend and Billy Idol join opera and Les Miserables star Alfie Boe in a new symphonic version of The Who’s seminal rock opera Quadrophenia, with orchestrations by Townshend’s partner Rachel Fuller. The deluxe CD/DVD edition includes the complete CD and a 44- minute DVD featuring an exclusive on-camera interview with Pete Townshend, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the album, and the new music video for “Love Reign O’er Me” shot on location at Brighton Beach Pier in England, site of the Mods and Rockers riots of 1964. Also available…
Let’s See Action: Pete Townshend Collects Solo Work, Introduces New Songs on “Truancy”
Pete Townshend recently confessed to Rolling Stone, “I just hope that on my deathbed I don’t embarrass myself by asking someone, ‘Can you pass me my guitar? And will you run the backing tape of ‘Baba O’Riley’? I just want to do it one more time.” Yet Townshend still finds himself looking to the past even as he embraces the present and future. While on the road celebrating (for the final time?) the legacy of The Who with creative partner Roger Daltrey, Townshend will issue a new solo anthology as part of…
Release Round-Up: Week of May 19
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up featuring a number of rock legends! Yes, Progeny: Seven Shows from Seventy-Two (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) This whopping 14-CD box captures seven complete concerts from Yes circa 1972 – the same tour leading up to the performances preserved on Yessongs. For those who don’t need 14 discs, 2-CD and 3-LP Highlights distillations are also available (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) ! Jeff Beck, Live+ (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Guitar hero Jeff Beck returns with a new live album culled from his 2014…
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The Ides of March Celebrate 50 Years with “Last Band Standing” Box Set
“Beware the ides of March,” goes the famous admonition. Thankfully, Jim Peterik, Larry Millas, Bob Bergland and Mike Borch didn’t heed the warning. Formed in Berwyn, Illinois in 1965 as the Shon-Dels, The Ides of March are still going strong 50 years later with their brassy blend of good-time rock and roll, R&B, pop and soul epitomized on the 1970 hit single “Vehicle.” These rock and roll survivors and local legends around the Chicago scene have recently assembled a definitive box set tracing their career from the spring of 1965 to the…
In The Air Tonight: Phil Collins Signs with Warner Music, Deluxe Editions Coming Soon
Phil Collins is getting ready to open the vaults. Warner Music Group has just announced its partnership with Collins to make the superstar artist’s solo albums available worldwide through WMG. Though Collins’ American fans have long been used to seeing his solo releases on WMG’s Atlantic Records label, fans in the U.K. and Ireland were used to seeing the Virgin Records logo on Collins’ classic solo records such as Face Value, Hello, I Must Be Going and No Jacket Required. This deal marks the first time that all of Collins’ solo records…
Review: Drivin’ N’ Cryin’, “Best of Songs”
In a career spanning almost thirty years on both independent and major labels, Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ has refused to be pigeonholed. The band, formed by Kevin (or Kevn) Kinney in 1985 has happily leaped from genre to genre, drawing on hard rock, country, pop, punk and other influences. Between June 2012 and January 2014, the band – now consisting of Kinney, founding member Tim Nielsen, Sadler Vaden and Dave V. Johnson – recorded a series of four EPs from which a tight, all-killer, no-filler collection has been culled. The simply-titled Best of…
Release Round-Up: Week of May 12
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! We kick off with a quartet of releases drawing on never-before-released live material! Leonard Cohen, Can’t Forget: A Souvenir of The Grand Tour (Columbia/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Leonard Cohen offers ten selections – including two songs never previously recorded and a pair of covers – from his recent world tour. Andrew Gold, The Late Show – Live 1978 (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) You’ll say “thank you for being a friend” to Omnivore Recordings for this first-ever release of Andrew Gold’s 1978 concert at West…
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Rare, Unreleased and Live 1965-2012
The late soul man, best known for his tenure as an Apple Records recording artist, is celebrated on this 2-CD anthology drawing on a period of nearly fifty years. The set (released last month in the U.K.) includes an entire concert from San Francisco in 1976, live BBC recordings, and previously unissued studio material from the 1970s onward.
Review: The Pretenders CD/DVD Reissue Series
Chrissie Hynde, Pete Farndon, James Honeyman Scott and Martin Chambers may have taken the name of The Pretenders, but anybody paying attention soon realized that there was nothing “pretend” about this band – not its brash amalgam of British and American styles (Hynde was a U.S. émigré; the other three were Brits), not its unabashedly punk approach to a classic rock sound, not its effortless, cool swagger. 1979’s Pretenders launched the band on a journey that continues to this day. It’s been a long, strange trip filled with ups (ten albums, numerous…
Release Round-Up: Week of May 5
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Oddly, releases were split between yesterday and today, but both days add up to a wealth of titles in nearly every genre! Without a doubt, this is one of the most packed weeks yet this year! Jackie DeShannon, All the Love: The Lost Atlantic Recordings (Real Gone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) All the Love–The Lost Atlantic Recordings brings together DeShannon’s entire 1973 Atlantic Records material in one place for the first time, including seven previously unreleased tracks plus her four collaborations with Van Morrison and the…
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The Dave Clark Five
October 23, 2026
