Another Kinks-size box is on the way. Following the recent, well-received series of deluxe album reissues and the limited-edition Kinks in Mono box set, Universal U.K. and Sanctuary Records have announced the latest project celebrating the quintessentially English rockers. Due on August 13, the 5-CD/1-DVD box set The Kinks at the BBC isn't the first […]
Continue ReadingIn those heady, pre-American Idol days, the route to success had many paths. For New Jersey’s Critters, the path was local, with the band making a name for itself in the tree-lined suburbs of Westfield, Scotch Plains and Princeton, gigging at high schools, colleges, and Knights of Columbus halls. Though they were proficient at covering […]
Continue ReadingAmen Corner, Round Amen Corner: The Complete Deram Recordings (RPM) The complete Deram output of Andy Fairweather-Low's soulful group Amen Corner is collected by RPM Records, including the 1968 album that gives this reissue its title! The Critters, Younger Girl: The Complete Kapp and Musicor Recordings (Now Sounds) The first album from New Jersey's Critters […]
Continue ReadingThough a holiday weekend is soon to kick off here in the U.S., the Kritzerland label isn’t resting on its laurels. The soundtrack specialists have just announced two new releases featuring three wild (and wildly different) film scores. One of the most successful thrillers of 1979, When a Stranger Calls, featured the second ever film […]
Continue ReadingHow to describe the career trajectory of Sam Phillips? Leslie Ann Phillips first made a splash in the music world recording contemporary Christian pop in 1983, took the name “Sam,” moved to the mainstream in the late 1980s with then-husband T Bone Burnett at the production helm, and even threatened Bruce Willis as an onscreen […]
Continue ReadingTwo classic labels from the American south have received the deluxe treatment from Ace Records, and for lovers of classic R&B and soul, releases don’t come much better than this. The Ace Story Volume 4 is the latest installment dedicated to Ace’s namesake, the pioneering R&B label out of Jackson, Mississippi that helped launch the […]
Continue ReadingPaul McCartney might have taken the bull by the horns for his aggressively homemade solo debut McCartney in 1970, defying practically all expectations, but he literally took the ram by the horns on the cover photo of its 1971 follow-up, Ram. By the time of Ram's release, George Harrison had declared that All Things (including […]
Continue ReadingChubby Checker, It's Pony Time/Let's Twist Again/Durocs, Durocs/Terry Knight and the Pack, Terry Knight and the Pack/Reflections/The Orlons, The Wah Watusi/South Street/Various Artists, Remember Me Baby: Cameo Parkway Vocal Groups Vol. 1 (Real Gone Music) The latest group from Real Gone Music includes classics from the vaults of Philadelphia's Cameo-Parkway label plus power-pop from San […]
Continue ReadingNot every album lives up to its title, but The Knack’s Havin’ a Rave-Up! certainly does! The group - Doug Fieger on vocals and rhythm guitar, Berton Averre on lead guitar, keyboards and vocals, Prescott Niles on bass, and Bruce Gary on drums – had quite a number of rave-ups on Los Angeles’ famed Sunset […]
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