In Part One of our Omnivore round-up, we looked at recent releases from Big Star and Roger Taylor. Today, we're turning the spotlight on Ian Matthews and the trio of Roger Manning, Jason Falkner and Brian Reitzell, a.k.a. TV Eyes! “This album was very much a conscious attempt at something a little more AOR, without deserting my roots.” So writes Ian (or, as he’s sometimes known on record, Iain) Matthews in his introduction to Omnivore Recordings’ splendid 2014 reissue of his 1978 album
Release Round-Up: Week of February 3
Tony Joe White: The Complete Warner Bros. Recordings (2-CD Set) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) / George Jones & Tammy Wynette: Songs of Inspiration (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) / Bobby Lance: First Peace/Rollin’ Man (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. ) / Jerry Williams: Gone (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) / Various Artists: Apollo Saturday Night/Saturday Night at the Uptown (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) / John Hall: Power (Expanded Edition) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) / Ray Kennedy: Ray Kennedy (Expanded
They're Gonna Step On You Again: Esoteric Reissues Bakerloo, Gasoline Band, John Kongos
Esoteric Recordings closed out 2014 with a trio of typically eclectic, and yes, esoteric rock releases deserving of a spotlight – including a pair of albums produced by Gus Dudgeon and a lost horn-rock LP in the tradition of Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears! Before joining Colosseum and replacing Peter Frampton in Humble Pie, Dave “Clem” Clempson was a member of the blues-rock trio Bakerloo. Though Bakerloo only released one album, its members – Clempson, Terry Poole and Keith Baker – went
Unchained Melodies: Ace Collects "The London American Label 1965" with The Righteous Brothers, Burt Bacharach, The Vogues, More
With the recently-released tenth volume of its year-by-year chronicle, Ace’s The London American Label series revisits 1965. Though America was swept up in the sounds of the British Invasion, Great Britain was still interested in the music from the United States – as evidenced by the 27 selections here drawn from 72 singles. That said, the tide was turning; London American issued 109 singles in 1964 and 177 in 1963. Hit-wise, though, the London American label yielded 11 chart records in 1965
Harmless Readies Massive 10-Disc "Northern Soul Time Capsule"
Hot on the heels of the 2014 release of the film Northern Soul and its soundtrack, Demon Music Group’s Harmless Records imprint is celebrating the R&B subgenre with what’s likely its most exhaustive chronicle ever: the 8-CD/2-DVD box set The Odyssey: A Northern Soul Time Capsule. This massive set, due on February 16, has been co-compiled by Harmless’ chief and 1970s Northern Soul DJ Ian Dewhirst, and features diverse tracks from artists including The Spinners, Chuck Jackson, Gladys Knight
RPM Round-Up: Label Collects Mick Fleetwood's Early Days with Bo Street Runners Plus Mark Wirtz, Pelican
As three recent titles prove, Cherry Red’s RPM label leaves no stone unturned in its pursuit of rare pop music to issue on CD, living up to its credo “By Collectors – For Collectors.” Much like The Artwoods (also recently the subject of a compilation from RPM), The Bo Street Runners were among the exciting mod R&B revivalist bands that London had to offer in the mid-sixties. However, The Runners – like The Artwoods, The Action and so many others – never attained the top tier of commercial
Review: The Kinks, "Muswell Hillbillies: Legacy Edition"
Ted’s checking in today with a look at one of the finest reissues of the last quarter of 2014: the CD/DVD Legacy Edition of The Kinks’ Muswell Hillbillies! - JM For God’s sake…Wanna have a cuppa tea with The Kinks…?! It’s the dead of winter and what better way to warm up these days then to spend some quality time with Ray Davies and company’s take on Americana, glam rock, and a touch of vaudeville on their 1971 classic album, Muswell Hillbillies? Taking its name from The Kinks’ cosmopolitan
Something Good: Legacy Expands "The Sound of Music," Classic Soundtrack Also Comes to SACD and Vinyl
The hills are alive again! On March 10, Legacy Recordings will reissue RCA Victor’s chart-topping 1965 soundtrack to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s five-time Academy Award-winning The Sound of Music in a new 50th anniversary edition to coincide with the golden anniversary release on Blu-ray. Collectors will note that expanded CD reissues of the classic musical soundtrack starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer are as inevitable as raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens; editions have
Souvenirs: Raven Compiles Best of Foghat, Four Albums from John Prine
The Raven Records label closed out its 2014 with a pair of double-CD sets reliving the seventies – one, a retrospective of Foghat’s first decade, and another, a complete collection of John Prine’s first four albums. Foghat’s Drivin’ Wheels: Best of 1972-1982 brings together 32 tracks from the FM radio titans, spanning the period of 1972-1982 and culled from ten studio and live albums. The blues-rock band was founded in Manchester, England in 1971 by three Savoy Brown expatriates –
Real Gone's March Slate Boasts Peggy Lee, Perry Como, Foghat, J. Geils Band - and Second Disc Records, Too!
We hope that nobody missed yesterday’s big news of The Second Disc’s partnership with Real Gone Music to create Second Disc Records, launching March 10 with a pair of releases from Johnny Mathis and Bob Crewe! But that’s not all that Real Gone has on tap for March release. With a total of eight titles ranging from psychedelia to standards, this may be one of the label’s most eclectic release batches yet! Real Gone is kicking off the month on March 3 with two iconic classic rock albums on
Seeing Is Believing: Deluxe Edition of Mike + The Mechanics' "Living Years" Coming Soon to U.S.
Way back in the fall of 2013, our very own Mike Duquette reported on the release of Mike + the Mechanics’ The Singles 1985-2014, a two-disc compendium for the band founded by Genesis’ Mike Rutherford. He teased, “This set has been pushed back to January 20, 2014…to better coincide with some more Mike + The Mechanics events in the coming year, including a U.K. tour in the winter of 2014, a forthcoming memoir from Rutherford and a planned reissue of Living Years for its 25th anniversary.”
The Complete Elektra Recordings
What do "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," "Jenny, Take a Ride" and "Lady Marmalade" all have in common? Each one of those songs came from the pen from Bob Crewe. A songwriter, producer, singer, entrepreneur, artist and candidate for the title of "Fifth Season," Crewe was one of music's true renaissance men. With Bob Gaudio, he co-wrote and produced most of the Four Seasons' greatest hits, and he also guided the careers of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Oliver, and many others. Yet one period of
Let's Pretend: Edsel Unveils Deluxe Multi-Disc Reissues For Pretenders' Catalogue
Edsel isn’t just playing pretend. On February 16, 2015, the Demon Music Group label will reissue all eight albums from The Pretenders as originally released by the Warner Bros. family of labels between 1979 and 1999 as deluxe editions. (Or: that’s to say 8/10, or 4/5, of the entire Pretenders discography! Only two albums have arrived since 1999, in 2002 and 2008.) Every one of the eight titles is housed in a digipak, with six of the titles as 2-CD/1-DVD sets and two as 1-CD/1-DVD
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Captain Beefheart, "SUN ZOOM SPARK 1970 to 1972"
“Art is rearranging and grouping mistakes.” So the late Don Van Vliet, a.k.a. Captain Beefheart, is quoted on the cover of the fourth disc of Rhino’s new box set SUN ZOOM SPARK: 1970 to 1972. It’s appropriate and ironic that the aphorism is featured on the sleeve of that disc, a collection of never-before-heard outtakes from the Captain and his Magic Band. But the tracks are far from mistakes; instead, they offer a window onto the process with which Van Vliet created his unmistakable brand of
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Suzi Quatro, "The Girl from Detroit City"
Susan Kay Quatro, a.k.a. Suzi Quatro, has sold 55 million singles and LPs, scored five U.K. Top 10s and twelve Top 50s including two chart-toppers, followed in the footsteps of Ethel Merman onstage, appeared on television’s Happy Days, and influenced a “Who’s Who” including Joan Jett and The Go-Go’s. Quatro is billed as The Girl from Detroit City on her first-ever retrospective box set which has been recently released by Cherry Red Records. This 4-CD, 82-song book-style box is packed with
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Complete Albums Collection"
Queens Boys Make Good, a headline might have read of young Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel when “The Sound of Silence,” a bleakly beautiful, acoustic snapshot of disillusionment and isolation, sat atop the Billboard Hot 100 on New Year’s Day 1966. Simon and Garfunkel were unlikely candidates for pop stardom. Neither English major Simon nor fine arts (later architecture) major Garfunkel hid their cerebral, intellectual tendencies. As the era of the singer-songwriter blossomed in the wake of Bob
To Everything There Is A Season: Raven Reissues "The Byrds"
When the album simply entitled Byrds arrived on David Geffen’s Asylum label in 1973, it had been only about a year-and-a-half since the last record from the California folk-rock heroes. But the original line-up of Gene Clark, David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke hadn’t recorded a complete album together since 1965. Byrds would be the group’s first long-player for a label other than Columbia Records – and the final Byrds album to date. Australia’s Raven Records label has
Big Break Is "On Fire" With Latest Quartet Of Releases From Anita Pointer, Silver Convention, More
Anita Pointer’s solo debut might have seemed inevitable. She had sung lead on many of The Pointer Sisters’ biggest hits including Allen Toussaint’s “Yes We Can Can” and co-wrote the Grammy-winning “Fairytale.” By the time she released Love For What It Is on RCA in 1987, Anita was following in the footsteps of sisters Bonnie (who left the group in 1977 for a Motown solo contract) and June (with 1983’s Baby Sister). The album arrived on the heels of the success of “Too Many Times,” a duet with
Ace Is Twistin' the Night Away with Sam Cooke Tribute, Motown Rarities and More
When it comes to rare soul, Ace Records never sleeps! The label has recently released a compilation celebrating the career of Sam Cooke not as a singer but as a songwriter, along with collections dedicated to excavating the vaults of two great Detroit labels: Westbound Records, and of course, Motown! Countless albums have anthologized the short but influential oeuvre of Sam Cooke, but Bring It on Home: Black America Sings Sam Cooke takes a different approach, featuring 24 versions of Cooke
Tony Joe White, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Ray Kennedy Highlight Real Gone's February
From The Apollo to the swamps of Louisiana, Real Gone Music has a whirlwind musical tour planned for its February 3, 2015 slate! The centerpiece of the February batch just might be the first-ever complete collection of Louisiana man Tony Joe White's Warner Bros. recordings! Singer-songwriter White ("Willie and Laura Mae Jones," "Polk Salad Annie") has one of the most distinctive voices in southern soul, and Real Gone's new collection celebrates a major period his career with a new 2-CD set
Release Round-Up: Week of December 9
Frank Sinatra, London (UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) This 3-CD/1-DVD swingin’ affair spans 1953-1984 and features over 50 previously unreleased tracks on CD and DVD - all dedicated to Sinatra's performances in the great city. At its centerpiece is an expanded and remastered edition of Sinatra Sings Great Songs from Great Britain, the Chairman's only studio album recorded outside of the United States! Watch for Joe's full review soon! The Beatles, 1962-1966 / 1967-1970 / 1 /
Spend the Night in Bangkok: "Chess" Reissued for 30th Anniversary
Tim Rice had been thinking about writing a musical about the Cold War for some time in the late 1970s. Fascinated by the Soviet-U.S. chess rivalry of the time, the lyricist-librettist approached his longtime collaborator Andrew Lloyd Webber with the idea. Lloyd Webber, however, was not available, as he was too busy developing a little show known as Cats. A suggestion from a producer put Rice in touch with songwriters Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA. Looking to pursue some projects
The Second Disc's HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE 2014
Don't have time to make that list and check it twice? Looking for that perfect present to place under the tree this holiday season? Look no further! 2014 has brought an amazing array of deluxe (and super deluxe!) special editions and box sets - plus a number of holiday-themed releases - all of which prove the vitality of music released in physical formats. We've highlighted the crème de la crème - over 40 titles! - right here to make your spirits bright, whatever your musical
Review: The Shirelles, "Happy and in Love/Shirelles"
It's an early "Happy New Year" from Real Gone Music, as the label has just announced its January 6 slate! Look for a full rundown soon on a super slate featuring two classic RCA albums from The Main Ingredient, the complete Atlantic recordings of Jackie Moore (Sweet Charlie Babe), a hilarious (and need we say profane?) comedy classic from Redd Foxx, a vintage 1981 Grateful Dead concert, and two soundtracks from the films of auteur Alejandro Jodorowsky! Full details are coming up, but we're first
Birth Of The Blue: "Uncompromising Expression" Box Set Celebrates 75 Years of Blue Note
Blue Note Records’ 75th anniversary celebration has already encompassed compact disc and vinyl reissues from the venerable jazz label’s classic roster of artists including Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Clifford Brown and Thelonious Monk. On November 4, the Blue Note party continues with the release of a new 5-CD box set. Blue Note: Uncompromising Expression is the title of both the box set, a 75-track compendium of key Blue Note singles, and an accompanying hardcover book. Uncompromising
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