It's finally time to open the doors on the much-anticipated 40th anniversary celebration of The Doors' L.A. Woman. We first reported on the L.A. Woman festivities back in April 2011, the actual month of the anniversary. The band looked forward to the fall release of a deluxe edition of its acclaimed sixth and final album with Jim Morrison. Then in September, we passed on an update from Jeff Jampol, the steward of The Doors' legacy, announcing "The Year of the Doors" campaign and promising the
Love Hangover, Redux: Hip-O Select Plans Deluxe Edition of "Diana Ross"
And now Hip-o Select unveils its first new catalogue set of the New Year: a deluxe edition of Diana Ross' legendary 1976 self-titled album. Ross' first studio LP in three years, following 1973's Last Time I Saw Him, was produced by Michael Masser, who'd rose to prominence with his work on Last Time - writing the title track - as well as Motown stalwarts Hal Davis and Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. The leadoff single had been released the previous year, a sweet, irresistible song from
Wouldn't It Be Good? Universal U.K. Expands Nik Kershaw's Debut LP
A pleasant surprise is coming from Universal's catalogue arm across the pond: an expanded edition of Nik Kershaw's excellent debut album Human Racing. Released in 1984, Human Racing gave the young Bristol-born, Suffolk-raised guitarist a big break after years of jobbing in local bands. Aided by a set of teen magazine-ready good looks and an ear for intricately arranged, vaguely theatrical pop tunes, the second single from Human Racing, the excellent "Wouldn't It Be Good," became a Top 5 smash
Review: Alex Chilton, "Free Again: The 1970 Sessions"
What makes a cult hero most? Alex Chilton ascended to that lofty rank as the leader of Big Star, a band whose negligible commercial impact is only matched by its considerable influence over an entire generation of musicians. When Chilton’s Paul McCartney met Chris Bell’s John Lennon (or vice versa?), they formed a brief but potent team as singers and songwriters. What resulted was the exuberant power pop of the optimistically-titled No. 1 Record as recorded by Big Star: Chilton, Bell, Jody
Goin' Back to New Orleans: Rounder Anticipates Mardi Gras With New Collection
Laissez les bons temps rouler! Each year, the good times do indeed roll in New Orleans, Louisiana, when the city throws the biggest Mardi Gras bash in the country. Though carnival season is celebrated around the world, the revelry in New Orleans surely has one of the richest legacies, and a major part of that legacy is, of course, its music. Rounder Records, founded in 1970 and now part of the Concord Music Group, has built a solid foundation of Cajun and carnival favorites in its impressive
Pulp on Fire: Early U.K. Albums Expanded for February Release
Yesterday's announcement of the lineup for the three-day Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in April was met with typical fanfare associated with major festival announcements. And why not? A veritable who's who of rising stars and legends across a wide swath of genres will be performing, including Radiohead, The Black Keys, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, Bon Iver, Madness, Squeeze, The Shins, ex-Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher, the newly-reunited At the Drive-In, James, Florence and The Machine,
Andy Gibb's Greatest Hits Reprised, and Flashback with Iron Butterfly
Two long out-of-print greatest hits collections are back in print today thanks to the fine folks at Rhino Records. Iron Butterfly’s Evolution: The Best of Iron Butterfly arrived on the Atco label in 1971 and brought together 11 tracks from the hard rock pioneers’ first four albums. Andy Gibb’s 1991 Greatest Hits, originally on the Polydor label, differed from the 1980 RSO Records hits compilation, and offered 12 prime pop cuts from the youngest of the Brothers Gibb. Although Rhino’s Light
Release Round-Up: Week of January 10
A slow week, but enough substantial releases to make this our first Round-Up of 2012! Alex Chilton, Free Again: The 1970 Sessions (Omnivore Recordings) After The Box Tops, before Big Star, the late, great Chilton finds his voice as a writer. A review from Joe is forthcoming! Jellyfish, Bellybutton / Spilt Milk (Omnivore Recordings) Brand-new vinyl remasters of the only two albums by the perennially underrated power pop band. Andy Gibb, Greatest Hits / Iron Butterfly, Evolution: The Best of
Intrada Releases Two Fists of Kamen for 2012
After a healthy and innovative year for film score reissues, Intrada starts off the new year with a bang - or better yet, a swift roundhouse kick: two heretofore-unreleased late-'80s action scores by the excellent Michael Kamen. The first one is a very familiar title to pop-culture junkies and cult-classic geeks: the score to Road House. The 1989 action flick starred Patrick Swayze in his first post-Dirty Dancing project as Dalton, a strangely complex, widely-renowned bouncer with a degree in
Edsel January Preview: Rundgren, Chapin, Gosdin, Manhattan Transfer, Jo Jo Gunne Kick Off 2012
What kind of year will 2012 be? If the first batch of releases, slated for January 30 release, from the Edsel label is any indication, there's plenty of rare and well-done music on the way! A three albums-on-two-CDs package collects the entirety of Todd Rundgren's Warner Bros. Records period. A Cappella/Nearly Human/2nd Wind continues Edsel's definitive series which brings Rundgren's solo and Utopia output on both Bearsville and Warner Bros. under one umbrella. The studio wizard's decision
Friday's Child: David Bowie's "Hours" Expanded and Remastered
Has it really been over eight years since David Bowie released his final studio album to date, Reality? Bowie turned 65 yesterday, quietly enjoying what may be his retirement. But it doesn't seem like so long ago that the musician was still considered prolific; Reality came hot on the heels of 2002's Heathen. And Heathen seemed to signify a new era for Bowie, his first album for the venerable Columbia Records after a stint at Virgin, for which 1999's Hours... was the final release. All of
Rick Nelson, Mark Lindsay, McGough and McGear (with Hendrix and McCartney!) Are Real Gone In February
With another month comes another slate of rare music on both CD and vinyl from one of the real up-and-comers in the reissue biz, Real Gone Music! The label’s February centerpieces just might be Rick Nelson’s The Complete Epic Recordings and Mark Lindsay’s The Complete Columbia Singles, but those two releases are being joined by titles from Sean (T.S.) Bonniwell, McGough and McGear, Eddie Hazel and the girls of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller’s Red Bird label on CD, plus Hank Thompson on vinyl!
Promised You a Miracle: Simple Minds Expand Early Albums for New Box Set, Tour
In 1985, Scottish rockers Simple Minds burst onto the American music scene in a big way with "Don't You (Forget About Me)," the chart-topping theme to iconic teen drama The Breakfast Club. Before their brush with John Hughes-induced fame, though, the band released a batch of increasingly successful post-punk and New Wave records between 1979 and 1982. This winter, to coincide with the "5x5 Tour" in Europe, which will see founding members - singer Jim Kerr and guitarist Charlie Burchill -
Another Year, Another Batch of "ICON" Titles
It's 2012, a new year full of new catalogue opportunities - and yet another batch of our favorite ridiculous, vaguely pointless series of compilations, UMe's ICON. The generic collections pack nothing but hits into an 11-track set list, enabling the uninitiated to get a simple primer of their favorite artist for maybe $8 and change. This time around, the batch is very rock-oriented (mid-'80s Deep Purple, Anthrax, Cinderella, Uriah Heep) with some traces of late-'90s rap and R&B (Dru Hill,
Mighty Love: Detroit Spinners' Best Compiled On New 2-CD Anthology
If an award were given for the Best Second Act in Popular Music, it might well go to The Spinners. Signed to Motown in 1963 after early successes at Gwen Gordy’s Tri-Phi label, The Spinners – singers Henry Fambrough, Pervis Jackson, Billy Henderson, C.P. Spencer and Bobbie Smith - had difficulty ascending to premier status at the Motor City label. After some moderate hits like “Truly Yours” in 1966, the group’s biggest brush with the charts came in 1970 when Stevie Wonder gifted them the song
Come Fly With Me: Bobby, Peggy, Ella, Buddy Take Off With "Pan Am" Soundtrack
Following in the footsteps of Matthew Weiner’s 1960s drama Mad Men, Jack Orman’s Pan Am takes to the airwaves each week on ABC with a period-perfect recreation of the days when "the world's most experienced airline" ruled the skies. Now, the show’s impeccably-selected music can be yours to keep - and perhaps used as the soundtrack to your very own swinging cocktail party! - on Verve’s Pan Am: Music From and Inspired by the Original Series, due to arrive on January 17. How appropriate that one
Compilation Watch: New Best-Ofs by Goldfrapp, Martina McBride Coming in 2012
Here's some more upcoming releases to shake the malaise off the new release schedule: two very different compilations from two very excellent ladies in the dance and country genres. Her name isn't mentioned as often as Faith Hill or Shania Twain, but Martina McBride was one of a treasured few country starlets who enjoyed a contemporary pop crossover or two. Her first big moment outside of Nashville came in 1997 with the adult contemporary ballad "Valentine" with pianist Jim Brickman; it charted
Not Pulling Your Chain: Captain Beefheart's Unreleased "Bat Chain Puller" Coming From Zappa Records
Though Frank Zappa had much to say as a musician and a social commentator throughout his lifetime, the keepers of the flame over at Zappa.com are a little more understated. But the team led by Zappa's widow, Gail, continues to offer a number of exciting projects relating to the Zappa legacy. One of the most unusual is on the way: the first-ever release of avant-garde wizard Captain Beefheart's original Bat Chain Puller. A lost 1976 album produced by Zappa, portions were re-recorded in later
The Dark Knight Returns: La-La Land Reissues "Batman Forever" Score
La-La Land Records continues their history with Gotham City's Caped Crusader on CD today, with the release of the complete score to 1995's Batman Forever. The third Bat-film sees Batman - the vigilante alter-ego of millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer) - square off against not one but two villains: Harvey "Two-Face" Dent (Tommy Lee Jones), the former district attorney whose facial disfiguration leads to a dual personality, and Edward Nygma (Jim Carrey), a disgraced employee of Wayne
Review: Elvis Presley, "Elvis Country: Legacy Edition"
The title of Elvis Presley's 1969 double album said it all: From Memphis to Vegas, or if you turned the jacket over, From Vegas to Memphis. Both sides of the singer were on display both on the album and in its title: the superstar showman who had triumphed at Las Vegas' International Hotel and the onetime Sun Records prodigy who'd periodically returned to his R&B roots. Though no studio album was released in 1970, the singer returned in January 1971 with Elvis Country: I'm 10,000 Years Old,
Hello (Again), Louis! "Satchmo: Ambassador of Jazz" Distilled to Four Discs For U.S. Release
A favorite box set of both The Second Disc and Mr. Elvis Costello, Satchmo: Ambassador of Jazz is the hefty 10-CD treasure trove issued in the U.K. by Universal Music in 2011. The first comprehensive career-spanning look at the great bandleader's life in music, Satchmo is housed in a case resembling one of Armstrong's actual travel trunks, and includes a 200-page hardcover book in addition to some select sheet music replicas. Yet despite Armstrong's central place in the annals of American
This is Not a Love Song: PiL Remasters in U.K. in 2012
It looks like the first major remaster campaign for 2012 is going to be a re-release of the Public Image Ltd. catalogue, coming from EMI in England. The spectacular flameout of punk legends The Sex Pistols in 1978 wasn't enough to stop lead singer John Lydon - forever better known as Johnny Rotten - in his tracks. Lydon collaborated with guitarist Keith Levene and bassist Jah Wobble to form Public Image Ltd., a band as noisy and rebellious as the Pistols but with a bit more room for creativity
Film Score Monthly is "Frantic"
It's a new year, and with that new year comes the knowledge that Film Score Monthly is getting closer and closer to its final release sometime this spring. But before you get frantic about that, enjoy their latest title, released last week: the soundtrack to Frantic. The 1988 Roman Polanski film featured Harrison Ford as an American doctor in Paris whose wife suddenly disappears from their hotel. His against-all-odds search for her - without the aid of the skeptical French government or U.S.
Ever Changing Times: Aretha In The 1980s, Anthologized by Legacy
On March 25, 2012, Aretha Franklin will turn 70 years old. That hardly means she's ready to slow down, however. 2011 found the Queen of Soul looking trim and sounding vibrant as she returned to the concert stage and released a new studio album. Surely her landmark birthday will be celebrated with countless airings of her 1960s golden hits like "Respect," "Natural Woman" and "Chain of Fools." But Legacy Recordings and Arista Records are seeing to it that a latter-day hitmaking period for the
The Year in Reissues: The 2011 Gold Bonus Disc Awards
What are you doing New Year's Eve? As we count down to that big celebration, we've been holed up at Second Disc HQ readying another year's Gold Bonus Disc Awards for you! We consider our annual awards a companion piece to Mike's round-up over at Popdose (essential reading, I might add!) and we endeavor to recognize as many of the year's most amazing reissues as possible as well as to celebrate those labels, producers and artists who have raised the bar for great music throughout 2011. These
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