The recent release of Alex Chilton's Electricity by Candlelight on Bar/None Records turns a "you had to be there" moment into a "you are there moment." The late, great singer/songwriter and Big Star frontman took a major setback - a sudden power outage between two sets at New York City's Knitting Factory in 1997 - and spun it into a most magical listening experience: Chilton picked up an acoustic guitar and regaled a small audience with a clutch of covers, from standards ("My Baby Just Cares for
Review: Bob Dylan, "The Complete Album Collection Volume One"
Tucked away on Bob Dylan’s 23rd studio album Empire Burlesque, the troubadour sings simply but sternly, “Trust yourself/Trust yourself to do the things that only you know best/Trust yourself/Trust yourself to do what’s right and not be second-guessed...” Dylan had trusted himself since he first arrived on the scene in 1962, engaging in a series of transformations that enthralled, angered, transfixed and bewildered those that followed his career – from folk troubadour to electric rocker to
Don't Deceive Your Free Will At All: New Yes Box Compiles Studio Album Remasters
If that recently-released Japanese SACD box is out of your price range, but you really want to get to know the catalogue of prog rockers Yes intensely well, Rhino has a new "studio albums" box you'll want to order. The Studio Albums 1969-1987 includes every remastered and expanded album originally released for the Atlantic and ATCO labels over a two-decade period. What started as a dense progressive band featuring the likes of vocalist Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, drummers Bill Bruford
Review: Jefferson Starship, "Live in Central Park NYC May 12, 1975"
“The police say you guys in the trees are causing problems...you can either jump out or they’ll...do something!” So went one of the colorful and increasingly adamant stage announcements about tree-dwelling audience members made throughout the near-entirety of Jefferson Starship’s free concert at New York City’s Central Park on May 12, 1975. The eight-strong band line-up of Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Marty Balin, Craig Chaquico, Papa John Creach, John Barbata, David Freiberg and Pete Sears was
The Ballad of Big Star: Legacy Collects Live, Studio Recordings On New "Playlist"
On November 26, the Memphis boys of Big Star will be back “In the Street” – and on store shelves. On that date, Magnolia Home Entertainment releases the acclaimed documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me on DVD and Blu-ray, and Sony’s Legacy Recordings unleashes Playlist: The Very Best of Big Star. Reviewing Omnivore Recordings’ soundtrack to the film, we wrote, “Rare is the cult band that actually lives up to its legend. Yet, with each listen – time after time, year after year – Big Star
WE HAVE OUR WINNERS! Humble Pie's "Performance: Rockin' the Fillmore - The Complete Recordings" is Served!
STEVE HARRIS, WARD WHIPPLE and RICH KAMERMAN - you've won a copy of this great box set! Message us on Facebook and tell us where to send them!
Hey, Lady (and Gentlemen)! Kritzerland Releases Two Scores for Jerry Lewis Comedies
In the golden age of Hollywood, comedy rarely was better than when Jerry Lewis took his act to the silver screen. With a knack for moving kinetically through zany situations, Lewis earned high regard as a movie star, first with his inimitable partner, singer Dean Martin, on stage, radio, television and film, and ultimately on his own in the 1950s, 1960s and beyond. The newest archival soundtrack release from Kritzerland brings two soundtracks from some of Lewis' first solo projects to CD for the
Release Round-Up: Week of November 5
David Bowie, The Next Day: Extra (ISO/Columbia) The year's biggest comeback album is now available as a 2CD/1DVD set featuring B-sides, remixes, unreleased songs and four music videos. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Bob Dylan, The Complete Album Collection Vol. One (Columbia/Legacy) Dylan's "official" albums discography from 1962 to 2012 is collected on this 47-disc set, featuring studio and live titles, 14 newly remastered albums and a two-disc compilation of non-LP material. CD: Amazon U.S. /
A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening: Ace Collects The Innocents' "Reprise, Decca, Warner Bros. and A&M Recordings"
Ace Records has recently given a classic vocal group its due with the release of The Innocents' Classic Innocents: The Reprise, Decca, Warner Bros. and A&M Recordings...Plus More. Drawing from the vaults of all of those labels, the new 28-track collection premieres 12 previously unissued tracks from the California doo-wop trio best-known for "Honest I Do," "Gee Whiz," and "A Thousand Stars," the latter with Kathy Young. The non-chronologically-sequenced new anthology is a belated follow-up
It's Love That Really Counts: Él Continues Vintage Burt Bacharach Series
In 1962 alone, Burt Bacharach premiered more than 30 new compositions, recorded by a variety of artists from Marlene Dietrich to The Drifters. It's even fair to say that '62 was the year the composer truly came into his own. While previous years offered their share of hits for the songwriter - "I Wake Up Crying," "Tower of Strength," "Baby, It's You," "Magic Moments," "The Story of My Life" - the Bacharach sound hadn't completely crystallized. With Jerry Butler's July 1962 single of Bacharach
Strictly Tabu: Edsel Readies Reissue Campaign for R&B Label (UPDATED 8/29)
UPDATE (11/4): This post now has confirmed track lists for the FIRST EIGHT WAVES of reissues. The long-gestating reissue campaign for Tabu Records by Demon Music Group looks to be taking shape - not only for the first wave of titles in the spring, but for a slew of content ambitiously planned through 2014. Founded in 1976 by Clarence Avant (who'd previously started the Venture and Sussex labels), Tabu scraped by for six years until a chance meeting and an inconvenient snowstorm gave the label
BBR Reissues "More More More" of Joe Tex, Latimore, Timmy Thomas
Joe Tex certainly didn’t hide his Bumps and Bruises when he arrived at Epic Records in 1977 after a five-year retirement. In fact, he titled the album after them! Only the self-described Clown Prince of Soul could have gotten away with song titles like “Ain’t Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)” and the even more politically incorrect “Be Cool (Willie Is Dancing with a Sissy).” Big Break has revisited this slab of funky southern soul in a remastered edition with three bonus cuts. Joe
Slowly It's Coming Back: Universal U.K. Plans Del Amitri Reissues
If you've been wanting to dive deep into the discography of Scottish rock band Del Amitri, Universal Music is satisfying your needs with a trio of double-disc reissues of the band's first three albums for A&M Records in 2014. While the group, anchored by singer/bassist Justin Currie and singer/guitarist Ian Harvie (both principal songwriters as well), only achieved one hit of note in the U.S., the peppy Top 10 single "Roll to Me," Del Amitri managed a solid streak of reliable album alt-rock
Review: Perry Como, "Just Out of Reach: Rarities from Nashville Produced by Chet Atkins"
“Hey, let’s do it again and again,” invited Perry Como on the bouncy opening track of 1975’s Just Out of Reach. The Tony Hatch/Jackie Trent song, previously recorded by singer-actor Jim Dale on This is Me, was perfectly suited to Como’s warm, soothing tones. Who wouldn’t take him up on the offer to do it again and again? As the musical landscape of the 1960s and 1970s drastically shifted, the one-time big band “boy singer” wasn’t quite as ubiquitous a presence as he once was. Still, the
Happy Halloween! "Wicked" Turns 10, Celebrates With Deluxe Reissue
“No one mourns the wicked,” goes the opening song of Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz’s musical Wicked. But the musical, which last night celebrated its tenth anniversary on Broadway, won’t have any need for mourners any time soon. “The Untold Tale of the Witches of Oz” is still going strong as it enters its tenth year and shows no signs of slowing down! Its fresh new perspective on The Wizard of Oz and intricate backstory of both The Land of Oz and the titular Witch has led Wicked to play
Merry Christmas, Baby! "A Very Special Christmas" Reissued with New DVD at Target Stores
If you can get over the shock of a good amount of holiday CDs available on the shelves at Target, you'll find a surprise new exclusive: a reissue of the classic 1987 compilation A Very Special Christmas with a brand new DVD about the long-running holiday benefit series. Produced by acclaimed engineer-turned-label impresario Jimmy Iovine, A Very Special Christmas featured the brightest stars in pop music, from Springsteen to Madonna, recording new versions of classic carols (plus one modern
The Best That He Could Do: John Mellencamp Collects Albums for New Box
While the 1980s have become synonymous with pop/rock music that allegedly valued image, craft and style above the emotional rush of the music itself, one of the decade's most popular entertainers had an image as rough-hewn and rugged as they could come: John Mellencamp. The Indiana-bred musician earned his keep making tuneful rock steeped in the traditions of the genre as well as the vision of the average, working-class middle American. And with a list of hits that includes "Jack and Diane,"
Review: Humble Pie, "Performance - Rockin' the Fillmore: The Complete Recordings"
Today, 105 Second Avenue in New York City looks inconspicuous enough, housing a branch of a savings bank. But for just over three years, between March 1968 and June 1971, that address was home to Bill Graham’s Fillmore East. The grandiose 2,830-capacity venue built in 1925 as a Yiddish theatre was sadly demolished around 1996, having survived transformations into The New Fillmore East and the landmark gay disco The Saint. Though the building no longer exists, with the bank occupying its
Pogues Box Up Complete Albums, Unreleased Live Show for "30 Years"
Celtic rockers The Pogues are releasing a new box set that collects all of their studio albums - two newly-remixed just for this release - and an unreleased live album with a very special frontman. Led by unforgettable frontman Shane Macgowan, The Pogues deftly combined the raucous traditions of traditional Celtic folk songs and sharp-edged punk rock, gaining a considerable live following when opening for The Clash on one of their last tours. A contract with Stiff Records followed, yielding Red
Omnivore Unveils Colorful Black Friday Slate with Van Zandt, Clark, Kovacs
Here at Second Disc HQ, we know that we can count on Omnivore Recordings for some of the most colorful and fun releases for Record Store Day's Back to Black Friday shopping event! On the day after Thanksgiving, you might find yourself at your local indie record store to pick up one of Omnivore's three Black Friday collectibles. As usual, it's a diverse trio, with releases from two late troubadours - Townes Van Zandt and Gene Clark - and one legendary late comedian, Ernie Kovacs. This past
Cherry Red, RPM Are "Looking Good" On New Girl Group Box
What is “femme mod soul,” you might ask? Cherry Red’s RPM imprint has the answer with a new 3-CD box set, Looking Good: 75 Femme Mod Soul Nuggets. This set aims to chronicle the girl group sound “from and for the underground.” As Lois Wilson points out in an introductory essay, the box doesn’t paint a full picture of the girl group era. Not only have there been countless compilations on the theme, but Rhino’s four-CD box set One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found
Release Round-Up: Week of October 29
Bananarama, Deep Sea Skiving / Bananarama / True Confessions / Wow! / Pop Life / Please Yourself: Deluxe Editions (Edsel) The pop trio's London discography gets the royal treatment with these 2CD/1DVD expanded editions featuring loads of rare and unreleased bonus tracks. Deep Sea Skiving: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Bananarama: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. True Confessions: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Wow!: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Pop Life: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Please Yourself: Amazon U.S. /
Review: Van Morrison, "Moondance: Deluxe Edition"
Over forty years after Van Morrison first declared it a “marvelous night for a moondance,” the Irish troubadour’s seminal 1970 album has become even more marvelous, ‘neath the cover of October skies. Warner Bros. Records has afforded Moondance the deluxe treatment, adding three CDs of session material and one Blu-ray with high-resolution stereo and surround mixes to the original 10-song album. With this truly immersive listening experience, Morrison’s third proper solo album takes its place
"Taxi" Driver Bob James' Funky Fusion Celebrated On New 2-CD Anthology
Every day, somewhere in the world, someone is watching Taxi – and hearing the catchy yet wistful theme song composed by Bob James. The television comedy, created by Mary Tyler Moore Show alumni James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels, David Davis and Ed. Weinberger, ran from 1978 to 1983 and netted eighteen Emmy Awards. But the original music of Taxi is just one of the many credits of jazz great Bob James. His spellbinding ouevre has just been compiled by the Decision Records label in association with
In Memoriam: Lou Reed (1942-2013)
Tough, uncompromising and honest – the music of singer, songwriter and guitarist Lou Reed might have been the very quintessence of New York rock and roll. Since first making a splash with 1967’s The Velvet Underground and Nico, Reed, who has died unexpectedly at the age of 71, doggedly pursued his own personal muse. Even as he synthesized numerous influences like doo-wop, jazz, R&B and Tin Pan Alley pop into his own ultimately influential rock style, he always stayed true to his roots as a
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