Van Halen fans were on pins and needles in the spring of 1986, when the California rockers replaced iconoclastic vocalist David Lee Roth with former Montrose frontman/rhythm guitarist Sammy Hagar. This unexpected partnership will be examined in full on a box set offering the first ever remastered editions of the group's Hagar-led albums on vinyl and CD - plus some bonus material, to boot. The Collection II, released October 6, is a sequel to Warner/Rhino's 2015 box containing new remasters of
Release Round-Up: Week of July 21
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores today! Various Artists, Dance Masters: Arthur Baker (The Classic Dance Remixes) (Demon) 4CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 4CD with signed print: Amazon U.K. 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 6LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. (includes signed print) / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Dance Masters: Arthur Baker (The Classic Dance Remixes)
Release Round-Up: Week of July 14
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today. Marshall Crenshaw, Field Day: 40th Anniversary Expanded Edition (Yep Roc) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Marshall Crenshaw's new reissue campaign continues with his second album, Field Day, as newly remastered by Greg Calbi. It will be augmented with bonus tracks on all formats: two non-LP B-sides (including a cover of
Greatest Hits [Various Formats]
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Limited Edition CD: Official Store LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Deluxe 2LP: Official Store 4LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Deluxe 4LP: Official Store Japan-Exclusive 6CD: CDJapan Aerosmith has a brand-new career spanning compilation coming in multiple formats. The simply-titled Greatest Hits shares a name with the
Vinyl Box Watch: Clapton, a-ha, Neutral Milk Hotel All Prep Big Sets on LP
For nearly no other occasion would you see these three bands in the same sentence, but it's true: vinyl box sets are all forthcoming from blues-rock legend Eric Clapton, Norwegian popsmiths a-ha, and '90s indie-folk darlings Neutral Milk Hotel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdl2I1spS8M This week, on January 13, Clapton readies The Complete Reprise Studio Albums - Volume II from Rhino Records. This 10LP set picks up where last year's first set left off, offering new remasters of Clapton's
What's So Civil About the 'Use Your Illusion' Box, Anyway?
As post-glam/metal moments of largesse go, Guns N' Roses' simultaneous release of Use Your Illusion I & II was perhaps as big as it gets. So it makes sense that a new box set collecting both albums is about as grandiose - and as messy. On November 11, UMe will collect the band's 1991 studio albums in a new super deluxe box that spans seven CDs or 12 LPs and a Blu-ray. Both boxes include new remasters of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, plus two complete live sets, newly mixed
The Weekend Stream Labor Day Special: Spotlight on WIWS Radio with John and Chrissy Sellards
Welcome to a special edition of The Weekend Stream for the long Labor Day weekend! Longtime readers might have noticed that adorable owl perched comfortably atop The Second Disc. He's the mascot for WIWS Radio, an online radio station dedicated to '50s and '60s classics in authentic AM radio sound. We'd like to introduce you to John and Chrissy Sellards, the couple behind WIWS. John is already well known to Second Disc readers for his design work on most of our Second Disc Records releases.
Release Round-Up: Week of August 5
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores today! Michael Nesmith, Different Drum: The Lost RCA Victor Recordings (Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music) Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music are bringing Michael Nesmith's Different Drum: The Lost RCA Victor Recordings to vinyl for the first time today! This 2-LP compendium features 22 tracks on CD drawn from the RCA Victor
Shake Your Soul: Real Gone Reissues Britny Fox, Baton Rouge, More
We filled you in yesterday on the first part of Real Gone Music's expansive August 5 slate featuring rare psychedelia, soundtrack classics, and more. Here's another pair of releases due tomorrow! Philadelphia glam metal band Britny Fox parlayed their connections with fellow Philly group Cinderella to score a major label contract with CBS. By 1991, though, they'd moved over to the Warner-affiliated EastWest label and made some changes. For their third full-length album Bite Down Hard, the band
The Weekend Stream: June 11, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to discover! From buckets of EPs by Portishead and the Black Crowes to a deep dive on Judy Garland, you'll find much to listen to and love. Judy Garland, Recordings from the M-G-M Films (Motion Picture Soundtrack Anthology) (WaterTower) (Apple Music / Amazon) There's plenty of celebrating the late, great Judy Garland's
Strange Animals: BMG Reissues Five Albums from Sparks in New 21st Century Collection
Director Edgar Wright's 2021 documentary The Sparks Brothers brought much-deserved attention to cult rock heroes Ron and Russell Mael and their prodigious, singular output as Sparks. Now, BMG has announced the 21st Century Sparks collection: a series of deluxe CD and vinyl reissues encompassing Balls (2000), Lil' Beethoven (2002), and Hello Young Lovers (2006) arriving on Friday, April 29; and Exotic Creatures of the Deep (2008) and The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman (2009) following on Friday, May
Release Round-Up: Week of April 8
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles arriving in stores today! Aerosmith, 1971 (The Road Starts Hear) (UMe) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada One of the highlights of 2021's Record Store Day Black Friday line-up was 1971 (The Road Starts Hear) - a never-before-heard, earliest-known recording from the classic line-up of rock band Aerosmith. Nearly five months after its vinyl debut
The Weekend Stream: March 19, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to discover! From hard-rockin' brothers to non-stop dance vibes, you've got quite a selection this week. Nelson, Imaginator / Silence is Broken / Brother Harmony / Life / Like Father, Like Sons / Before the Rain / Perfect Storm (After the Rain World Tour 1991) / Lightning Strikes Twice (Stone Canyon/UMe) Imaginator: iTunes
Robotronik: Kraftwerk Collect Remixes for New CD, Vinyl Set
Over a career spanning 50 years, Kraftwerk have influenced artists from David Bowie to Depeche Mode. The pioneers of electronic music and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers have long been at the vanguard of innovation in music, and continue to perform and tour today. Hip-hop/electro progenitors Afrika Bambaataa and The Soul Sonic Force incorporated the German band's music into their 1982 hit "Planet Rock," beginning a long relationship between Kraftwerk and club/DJ culture. Late in 2020, Kraftwerk
Habit Worth Forming: Graham Parker Expansion Coming from Reactivated Iconoclassic Label
It's no rumor and there's no fooling: Graham Parker's first proper solo album is getting expanded on CD this April 1 from Iconoclassic Records. "I've always been striving to make a record that sounds beautiful," Parker told Musician about his first without backing band The Rumour. "I think Another Grey Area sounds beautiful. Everything is in the right place...the whole thing holds together." Coming off the critical success of 1980's The Up Escalator, Parker recruited polished rock producer
A Second Disc Special Feature: David Lasley and Rosie
The Second Disc is thrilled to welcome Charles Donovan for a very special guest post. In addition to being one of the finest music journalists working today, Charles has curated some of our favorite releases in recent years including Rupert Holmes' Songs That Sound Like Movies: The Complete Epic Recordings, Pamela Polland's Pamela Polland/Have You Heard the One About the Gas Station Attendant?, and Maxayn's Reloaded: The Complete Recordings 1972-1974. Today, Charles brings his knowledge,
Soundtrack Watch: Varese, La-La Land, Intrada Kick Off 2022 with Killer Scores
The year has barely started, yet three beloved soundtrack reissue labels are bringing the heat to 2022's score reissue slate. Between a horror-packed box set from Varese Sarabande and a trio of expanded releases by James Horner, there's much cause for celebration. That is, if Varese doesn't kill you first! The label continues 25 years of superb scares with a new box set of soundtracks devoted to the horror franchise Scream. This zingy, gory picture, written by Kevin Williamson and directed
The Second Disc's Picks for Record Store Day Black Friday 2021
From all of us here at Second Disc HQ to all of you, we hope you've enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving in the company of beloved family and friends. (And with plenty of delicious food, too!) Now, Record Store Day's annual Black Friday event is upon us, so we're spotlighting a dozen of the most eagerly anticipated releases arriving to your local independent brick-and-mortar record shop! Here are our personal picks for RSD BF must-haves; visit Record Store Day's official website for a list of
The Weekend Stream: May 29, 2021
While The Second Disc prides itself on connecting people to reissues and box sets they can keep on their shelves, it's no secret that listening audiences are also digital - catalogue music lovers, too - and our passion is connecting people to music from the past that they might adore. So we've introduced a new Saturday feature: The Weekend Stream, which focuses on hidden gems that recently made it to digital channels that might make your playlists a little brighter! Madonna, Beautiful
In Your Eyes: Mondo Expands 'Say Anything...' Soundtrack with Unreleased Material
Soundtrack vinyl label Mondo offers a killer new expanded release this week that'll make even the staunchest opponent to selling, buying or processing anything reconsider their position: the stirring soundtrack to 1989 romantic comedy Say Anything... Already lauded for his teenaged work as a journalist for Rolling Stone (which inspired his 2000 film Almost Famous) and the book-turned-'80s film classic Fast Times At Ridgemont High, screenwriter Cameron Crowe made his directorial debut with
True to Themselves: Omnivore Announces New Album from Badfinger's Joey Molland and Wax Cylinder (!) from Dom Flemons
As the only living member of the original Badfinger quartet, it's fallen to Joey Molland to keep the torch burning brightly for his old band. But in addition to touring as Joey Molland's Badfinger, the Liverpool-born singer-songwriter-guitarist/rock and roll survivor has recorded a number of solo albums since 1984. Last year, he appeared in the well-received tour of It Was Fifty Years Ago Today: A Tribute to The Beatles' White Album alongside such talents as Todd Rundgren, Micky Dolenz,
Laurel Canyon Reprise: Game Theory Rarities Collected on "Across The Barrier of Sound: Postscript"
Omnivore Recordings' celebration of '80s indie band Game Theory continues on March 20 with Across The Barrier of Sound: Postscript. The critically acclaimed group gained legions of fans over the years with '60s and '70s pop influences and a post-punk edge. Their classic 1982-1988 albums have already been given the Omnivore treatment, and now the label is turning the spotlight toward a clutch of sessions recorded in 1989-90 by a revamped Game Theory lineup. For that short time, bandleader
The Complete Keen Years (1957-1960)
ABKCO's release of The Complete Keen Years (1957-1960) kicks off a year-long celebration of Sam Cooke, who would have turned 90 years old on January 22, 2021. This 5-CD box showcases Cooke's early work as a pop craftsman at the end of the 1950s. Cooke recorded three albums for Keen: a self-titled debut (also known as Songs By Sam Cooke), Encore, and Tribute To The Lady ("the lady" in this case being Billie Holiday, who died the same year). Those LPs were mostly built around standards from The
He Sends Us: Sam Cooke's Keen Years Collected In New Box
Sam Cooke would have turned 90 on January 22, 2021, but that's not stopping the party from starting a little early! This month, The King of Soul will be celebrated with a new box set featuring five of his albums for the Keen label. The Complete Keen Years (1957-1960) showcases Cooke's early work as a pop craftsman at the end of the 1950s. At the beginning of the decade, Cooke was a teenage sensation as a member of gospel group The Soul Stirrers. But his interest in R&B and pop could not
Everybody's Still Talkin': Omnivore Preps Unreleased Harry Nilsson Album for November
Nilsson fans (and who isn't?), rejoice! On November 22, the late singer-songwriter's final recordings will at last see the light of day on CD, vinyl, and digital formats from Omnivore Recordings. Losst and Founnd is the first new album of original material from Harry Nilsson since 1980's Flash Harry. Nilsson was working on the album at the time of his death at the age of 52 in January 1994 with producer Mark Hudson (Ringo Starr, Aerosmith). Two of the songs, "U.C.L.A." and "Animal Farm," were