Back in September, we reported on a hits/B-sides compilation for legendary Britpop band Suede. Now, the recently-reunited band have announced a major catalogue expansion through U.K. label Demon/Edsel. In five weeks starting May 30, the label will release massive three-disc editions of each of the band's studio LPs, from 1993's self-titled debut to 2002's A New Morning. The sets will feature two CDs featuring the remastered original albums, the band's many non-LP B-sides and many unreleased
Back Tracks: Aerosmith, Part II - The Geffen Years and Beyond
Way back in January we did a Back Tracks feature on Aerosmith's Columbia discography, just as Steven Tyler was beginning to crazy it up on American Idol. However, since then Tyler has become a solid asset for Idol fans, and it wouldn't be surprising if the end of the show's current season didn't dovetail into some sort of Aerosmith resurgence. With that in mind, let's take a look from where we left the band in the last Back Tracks special. 1982's Rock in a Hard Place saw original guitarists
Michael Small's "Audrey Rose" Arrives on CD
Despite his acclaimed scores to films such as Klute, The Parallax View, Marathon Man and The China Syndrome, Michael Small (1939-2003) remains one of the most underrated names in the film score pantheon. Too few a number of Small’s works have been made available on CD, yet his singular voice enhanced a number of great films (and even some bad ones - Ed.). This is especially true during his 1970s peak in which he collaborated with directors as celebrated as Alan J. Pakula, Bryan Forbes, Sidney
Levon Helm Bands Three Classic Albums Together
I'll be honest: outside of The Last Waltz, there's not a whole lot I know about The Band. The influential and short-lived folk outfit certainly cast a wide net on a particular musical culture, but it's not one that's ensnared your catalogue correspondent just yet. But I am bizarrely intrigued at Three of a Kind, a new release from former Band mate Levon Helm available on his Web site. From the looks of it, this set is a straight, three-for-one reissue of the group's first three Capitol
UPDATE: Marley Versions Aplenty
The release of Live Forever, Bob Marley's last concert on CD, yielded the first retail exclusives for a catalogue title in 2011 - a T-shirt for Target buyers and a bonus disc for Best Buy customers - and we have some more detail about the offerings at each store. For reasons I can't wrap my head around, Target is also offering a third version of the set - not only the double-disc edition with and without the T-shirt, but a pared-down single-disc version of the album. While the full version of
Review: "The Very Best of The Rat Pack"
What do we know about The Rat Pack, that famed group of celebrity rogues and rapscallions that defined American cool in the early '60s? You might not know that only a third of the classic members of the group were initially included; The Rat Pack was initially made up of actor friends of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, including Frank Sinatra but not Dean Martin or Sammy Davis, Jr. But after Bogart's death and the subsequent release of Ocean's 11 in 1960, the classic image of The Rat Pack -
Back Tracks: Aerosmith Part I - The Columbia Years
Aerosmith isn't dead, but it may as well be. Frontman Steven Tyler was preposterous in his first televised appearance as a judge on American Idol (though there was some very funny writing about the whole ordeal), and if you're like me, you wish Tyler had stepped away from such ridiculous duties and went on to perform with what many have called America's greatest rock and roll band - even if it sounded more like their recent, pop-oriented rock instead of their bluesy, pre-metal days. To
Reissue Theory: Sammy Davis, Jr., Compiled: "Sammy in the Seventies"
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, here we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. Today, we look at a beloved American icon and one of the least anthologized periods of his lengthy career. There may be no figure in American popular culture more maligned in death than Sammy Davis, Jr. The image of the diminutive entertainer, clad in open shirts and bell-bottoms, wearing beads and gold chains, and with an ever-present cigarette dangling
In Case You Missed It: Slayer on Vinyl
Oddly, Slayer's The Vinyl Conflict box, which came out in November, sort of flew under The Second Disc's radar. But today, we have a very special reason to make sure that doesn't happen again. This 11-LP box features all of the iconic metal band's albums for Def Jam (yes, this was toward the end of Rick Rubin's tenure with his label) and American Recordings (the label Rubin subsequently created), from 1983's Reign in Blood to 2009's World Painted Blood. All are remastered and pressed on
Back Tracks: John Lennon
Whether you thought he was the smartest of The Beatles, the best writer, the most politically astute, the one with the most interesting solo career - or if you disagree with any of those statements - I daresay I cannot allow you to disagree with this one: it is not fair that John Lennon is not still alive today. Regardless of your take on his input into the Fab Four (or their eventual demise), Lennon was very much an intelligent, caring, smart musician, who spent much of his career using those
Back Tracks: INXS
As promised, today's Back Tracks takes a look at the music and reissues of INXS in honor of its fallen frontman, Michael Hutchence, who died 13 years ago yesterday. Don't change after the jump.
Sale of Burton/Elfman Box Features More Twists, Turns Than Burton/Elfman Films
If you check the official Web site of The Danny Elfman & Tim Burton 25th Anniversary Music Box, you'll notice that less than 100 copies of these $500-plus, mammoth box sets remain. That's not bad at all, for a box set of that price. So why, then, can you order the set on Amazon and Best Buy? Perhaps we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves here. When the box set was announced back in September, the big unanswered question (as always) was whether the limited, numbered run was the only
The Cream of Keith's Crop
As if his new memoir wasn't exciting enough, Keith Richards has also got a compilation of his greatest solo material due out next week. Vintage Vinos (or Winos - Amazon and Keith's official site say Vinos but that just seems odd) compiles tracks from Richards' two solo albums for Virgin Records as well as a live album recorded with backing band The X-Pensive Winos (which included session luminaries Waddy Wachtel and Steve Jordan). It adds one rare track, an acoustic song called "Hurricane." The
Playlist Tracks Aplenty
Way back in August, The Second Disc reported on a flood of titles in Legacy's budget Playlist series. Today, a whole bunch of them are released, and if you haven't yet made your weekly trip to the record store and were wondering what might be in store, you'll have your answer after the jump. Read on to see the newest compilations for Barry Manilow, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Isley Brothers, gospel titles from Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton and much more!
Back Tracks: Morrissey
When discussing the increasing amount of catalogue projects and compilations surrounding one Steven Patrick Morrissey, it's easy to turn his words against him. "Reissue! Repackage!" he sings with derision on The Smiths' "Paint a Vulgar Picture." "Re-evaluate the songs/Double-pack with a photograph/Extra Track (and a tacky badge)." Would the man who wrote and sang that song in 1987 have contempt for the man who, on this day, has reissued his first solo compilation, Bona Drag, 20 years on, with
"Pinkerton" Deluxe Edition Details Unveiled
With the release of the surprisingly strong Hurley from those crazy pop-rockers Weezer, it's a delight to see Rivers Cuomo and company back in the public eye. Sure, everyone likes to come down on their more recent material - say, everything after their self-titled "Green Album" in 2001 - for being overly polished and lacking the depth of their excellent first two records, but the fact that Cuomo can pen so many catchy pop hooks on a single album is admittedly stunning. And this year, the band's
"TNG" Box Boldly Goes Where Few Have Gone Before
Film Score Monthly has announced its fifth box set, and like the others, it's quite an undertaking: Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Ron Jones Project collates 14 discs' worth of music from the famous television series plus a heap of other Trek goodies from composer Ron Jones. Jones, best known for some surprisingly notable scores to animated television works (including the Disney cartoons DuckTales and Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers along with turns on Family Guy), composed scores to 42
Back Tracks: The Cars
The above picture is a bit of a shock, if you haven't seen it yet: all four of the surviving members of The Cars - Ric Ocasek, Elliott Easton, Greg Hawkes and David Robinson - in a recording studio. It was posted to the official Facebook page for the Boston-based rockers on Thursday. No caption, no explanation. Just the members of The Cars, possibly gearing up for some new music. And who'd have thought? Since the band broke up in 1988, chances seemed slim where a reunion was concerned. The
Back Tracks: R.E.M. - The I.R.S. Years
Today, the 25th anniversary reissue of R.E.M.'s Fables of the Reconstruction hits stores. Athens, Georgia's favorite rock band has spent the past five years or so establishing their place in the pop-rock firmament: since 2006, the band's early recordings for I.R.S. Records - a six-year span between 1982 and 1987 - have been the center of much catalogue attention from EMI and Universal (each has a piece of the I.R.S. catalogue). The four members of the band - vocalist Michael Stipe, guitarist
News Round-up: A Soulful Tuesday
Soul music enthusiasts have had a lot to cheer about this year, with boutique labels (Reel Music, Cherry Red’s Big Break and Super-Bird) and majors (Hip-O Select) alike delivering the goods with deluxe reissues of many classic albums. Soulmusic.com is offering two new releases this week, one on its own label and one coming from Expansion Records. Thelma Houston’s 1969 LP Sunshower (Dunhill 50054) was previously available on CD as an expensive Japanese import, but Soulmusic.com brings it to the
The Setlist Situation, Part II
A huge debt to Vintage Vinyl News for posting the track lists of the upcoming batch of Setlist compilations from Legacy Recordings. If you haven't been following these titles, Sony's reissue label is releasing 11 budget-oriented live compilations (basically a live counterpart to their successful and sometimes collector-worthy Playlist series) on July 13. Happily, VVN's post (the information of which comes from Legacy itself) shows the discs seem rather forthcoming about recording information -
In Defense of Playlist
In today’s radically-changed music climate, it should come as no surprise that record labels are trying many different series and business models to figure out just what the heck will sell. These releases aren’t necessarily aimed at the audience reading this site, most often targeting the casual music buyer. As such, these greatest hits series – whether Sony’s The Essential…, Universal’s 20th Century Masters or EMI’s Classic Masters, just to name a few – tend to be scorned by many collectors as
The Setlist Situation
When Legacy announced a new compilation series called Setlist, featuring some of their roster's greatest hits in a live setting, some fans understandably started scratching their heads. The label's Playlist series, from which this new series obviously drew inspiration, made sense on a few levels. They were compilations priced for the budget-conscious, and sometimes had a few bones thrown to hardcore collectors in the form of single-only mixes or edits. For Setlist, however, the premise seems
Friday Feature: "Licence to Kill"
Recent coverage of soundtracks on The Second Disc has been warmly received. To this end, we have added a the Friday Feature. Every Friday, you'll find some sort of article devoted to a soundtrack or film composer of merit. We hope you enjoy these trips through Hollywood's musical landscape! Our first Friday Feature deals with one of the oddest of the James Bond films. No, not Never Say Never Again (that's not really a Bond film, anyway). Licence to Kill was the second and final feature with
Back Tracks: U2
Is it inherently lazy to do a U2 post on a music blog for St. Patrick's Day? Whether it is or not, it's done for two reasons. First, since The Second Disc is all about reissues, it's worth tipping a hat to Universal's ongoing series of U2 reissues. They have been some of the best on the market in recent years. The packaging is nice, the content is comprehensive and groundbreaking (in other words, the fan gets all those hard-to-find tracks he or she is looking for plus a score of vault material)
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