This week's Friday Feature should come as no surprise. There's one movie on more minds than any other this week: Toy Story 3, the 11th effort by Disney's Pixar Animation Studios. Like the other films in the series, it promises to be a funny, adventurous and touching affair that adults will connect to as easily as kids. Like the others, it promises massive box office returns and universal acclaim (as of this writing, film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has not picked up a single negative
Reissue Theory: The Time Part II
Our continuing look at The Time's back catalogue culminates with some of the biggest hits in the band's career - and the weird career turns that seemed to prevent them from ever enjoying them as a band. By 1982, The Time were a well-received seven-piece electro-funk outfit that could play rings around other live bands. Despite their live quality, none of their studio efforts were their own, with Prince meticulously playing all the instruments and guiding lead vocalist Morris Day through all his
The Long and Short of It
If you haven't checked out the discussion on this week's post about single edits/versions on compilations, do so immediately. It's a fun, thoughtful look at an issue that some of us take for granted every now and again. It's inevitably led to a bit of thought given to the opposite consideration, too: what if labels started releasing longer versions of hits everyone knew and loved? What a delightful surprise that would be. And I keep crossing my fingers that it'll happen every now and
Reissue Theory: The Time, Part I
After last week's Prince binge on The Second Disc, it was inevitable that we'd double back to some of The Purple One's best side projects. One of those great ensembles is The Time, arguably the funkiest band to come out of Minneapolis in the 1980s and a criminally underrated side-project to this day. The Time was basically Prince's rearranged version of a similarly named local funk outfit, Flyte Tyme. That band was led by vocalist Alexander O'Neal and featured among its ranks keyboardists Monte
News Round-Up: J5 Goes Live, Macca's "Run" Versions and Papa Roach Compiled
Hip-o Select has begun quite the marketing push for their upcoming release of The Jackson 5's Live at The Forum. They have set up an entire site devoted to it, featuring pictures, anecdotes and (best of all) streaming excerpts from the album ("Who's Lovin' You" is the first previewed track). The folks at the label have also made the mind-blowing decision to link to us on the site, so if you're a J5 fan who clicked through to The Second Disc, a special welcome to you! A very interesting
La-La Land Goes to "The Edge" with "Speed 2"
Bad puns all, I know. But the title at least lets you know that La-La Land continues its killer pace of getting great soundtracks to dig out from the vaults. Up for sale this week is two 20th Century Fox films from the '90s with Sony-owned soundtracks. Mark Mancina's score to Speed 2: Cruise Control, a score with more to offer than the silly, Sandra Bullock-led sequel to the action hit, makes its official debut on CD. Meanwhile, Jerry Goldsmith's score to The Edge, a David Mamet-penned nature
Close (To the Edit)
Not to disparage our treasured readers, but reader Shaun delivered one of the most thought-provoking comments on The Second Disc in awhile when discussing yesterday's post on a hypothetical Dave Matthews Band compilation. To quote: But what's with all the edits in your tracklist, Mike? Sorry, but I HATE when you buy a "best of" set and you get stuck with radio, single edits. Those hideous cuts on both "My Life" and "Pressure" on the original pressing of Billy Joel's Greatest Hits Vol I & II
Rhino Handmade Goes "On Tour" Plus a Bit of Live Dead
Rhino Handmade has announced its latest title, a thoroughly expanded edition of Delaney & Bonnie's seminal live LP On Tour with Eric Clapton. In late 1969, Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett embarked on a killer tour that included some of the best blues and rock musicians of the era. Clapton was the featured performer, to be sure, but that tour also included star turns from Leon Russell, Dave Mason of Traffic, Carl Radle, Jim Gordon and Bobby Whitlock (who would form Derek and The Dominos with
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
Bacharach: Reissued, Remastered and Remixed
Hot on the heels of The Second Disc’s look at the solo recordings of Burt Bacharach, news just broke that one of the maestro’s most famous non-solo albums is receiving the limited-edition deluxe reissue treatment from the Kritzerland label. United Artists’ cast recording of the 1968 Broadway musical Promises, Promises has long been a favorite recording of Bacharach & David aficionados for introducing their songs “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” “Promises, Promises” and “Knowing When to
Hancock in a Box
A quick heads-up from the Twitter feed of music Web site Innerviews (thanks to MusicTAP for the heads-up) that Legacy plans on releasing yet another humongous box set for one of their artists. Jazz legend Herbie Hancock will join the ranks of Miles Davis, Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan in getting a super-sized box. CD Universe has a pre-order page for The Complete Columbia Collection, a 35-disc box encompassing everything Hancock did for the label, from 1973's Sextant to Perfect Machine (1988).
Hip-O Preps Solo Smokey
Yet another late-day announcement from Hip-o Select: Universal's boutique label is starting up a series of Smokey Robinson's solo records for the Motown label groups. The series begins with The Solo Albums Volume I, available for pre-order now. The sets will bring Smokey's solo Motown catalogue back into print after a long hiatus from CD, starting with his first two solo efforts, Smokey (1973) and Pure Smokey (1974). The set will feature 24 pages of restored artwork, lyrics and liner notes
Tangled Up in Bob: Dylan To Be Boxed Again?
The music of Bob Dylan is widely credited with introducing the concept of the box set to the CD era with the 1985 release Biograph (Columbia C3K 38830, reissued as C3K 86568). Further Dylan box sets have followed including 1991's The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare and Unreleased): 1961-1991 (Columbia C3K 47382, reissued as C3K 65302), 2003's limited edition catalog reissue box simply collecting 15 individually-available hybrid Super Audio CD editions of his catalog (Columbia 90615), and most
Friday Feature: "Batman (1989)"
And one last foray into the Prince catalogue on The Second Disc with what is arguably one of the dopiest entries in his catalogue. To some, it seems like a total work for hire, a hatchet job, a cash-in - and while that may be the case, it's kind of a fun listen. That's right: Prince's album devoted to the 1989 film Batman. The story goes that star Jack Nicholson was the one who suggested Prince to director Tim Burton. After editing two scenes to a temp track of Prince tunes ("1999" for the
Prince Week Day 7: Crystal Ball
In the penultimate entry of Prince Week (I know, this is Day 7, but we got one more piece for you tomorrow), The Second Disc turns its attention to one of the most fertile times in Prince's life. From 1986 to 1987, just two short years, His Royal Badness managed to record enough material for a good four or five albums; it should go without saying that this material would be greatly served in a box set from Rhino at some point in time. Hit the jump to get your world rocked with a story of lots
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 -
Prince Week Day 6: Life in the Madhouse
In determining what was going to make up the contents of Prince Week, a great deal of agonizing was endured over where to place Prince's many side projects. Prince, ever the purple brain trust, developed a lot of side projects over time, particularly during the beginning of his success as a pop artist. The Time, Sheila E. and Vanity 6 are still the best acts he ever squired in the early Paisley Park years, but there were plenty others that deserve a look back someday - and ultimately, the sheer
Reissue Theory: Green Day, "Dookie"
On this day, seminal '90s pop-punk band Green Day gets the kind of musical immortality only reserved for a select few. That's right, today's the day that the Green Day: Rock Band video game hits stores. Fans will finally be able to control Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool as they ascend from obscurity to supposed sellouts. If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: I don't get the concept of selling out at all. So many supposed fans get mad when their beloved local act
Soundtrack Reissue Round-Up: Beyond Thunderdome and Another Brian May
It might be premature to write about the film score news of the day - especially since the La-La Land label will be announcing some titles later today - but a few labels have announced some worthwhile titles to kick off your Tuesday morning. Although it was announced late last month, the Tadlow Music label is now shipping copies of the complete score to Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, composed and conducted by Maurice Jarre (an Oscar winner for Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago). This deluxe
The Sweetest Punch: Costello Compiles the Universal Years
Upon its acquisition of the Elvis Costello catalog in 2007, UMe wasted no time in releasing The Best of Elvis Costello: The First 10 Years (Hip-O B0008640-02). That self-explanatory set was compiled by Costello himself, and so it’s fitting that some three years later, Costello and Hip-O are bookending that disc with Pomp & Pout: The Universal Years. This 18-track compilation, slated for a July 13 release, draws from the 10 years Costello spent at various Universal labels between 1998 and
Reissue Theory: A Huey Two-Fer
For whatever reason, your loyal reissue reporter has been listening to a lot of Huey Lewis and The News. No, it's not a Patrick Bateman thing. It's just that The News - that pub-rock ensemble that powered a lot of mid-'80s radio - are just crazy listenable. They really bridged a gap between straight-up blues-rock and synth-driven pop, creating a style that really holds up some 25 years or so later. It's a style that's kind of underrepresented on CD, though. Sports was expanded in 1999 with live
Prince Week Day 4: The Reissue Conundrum
Talking about Prince on a blog devoted to back catalogue music usually results in three considerations: 1) Prince really should allow remasters/reissues of his astounding discography, 2) Prince won't ever allow remasters/reissues of said discography and 3) why the heck not? As many of his fellow contemporaries (Madonna, Michael Jackson, Rick James, etc.) and other luminaries (The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, even The Beatles) have enjoyed remastering and rediscovery on compact disc, Prince has
Prince Week Day 3: He Would Die 4 U
This particular installment of Prince Week is an unorthodox one. The Second Disc is usually a place for just catalogue type stuff, since that is the gateway to most of our feelings about classic music. But sometimes the feelings themselves are worth writing about, if they're particularly strong. It's with this in mind that The Second Disc presents a bit of an emotions-based look at Prince's music. The following (admittedly lengthy) essay is something I've worked on for a few years in college,
Prince Week Day 2: A Compilation Comparison
We continue our Prince week with a little something for the fans out there that may have never caught on to His Royal Badness enough to buy any of his music. Often times, in cases where you want to get a firm start on following an artist, a greatest-hits compilation is the way to go. But Prince, like many other rock legends, has more than one such set on the market. And money's tight for a lot of folks. So which one do you end up buying? Follow the jump for a detailed breakdown of each one.
It Might Be (The Soundtrack for) You
The Film Score Monthly label has prepped another two titles for release: two very different scores from two different composers, but winners both. First up is Jerry Goldsmith's in-demand score for the Sean Connery space Western Outland (1981). Goldsmith created a score that resembled his suspenseful approach to Alien from two years before, and it was augmented by some last-minute additions by Michael Boddicker (Buckaroo Banzai, Flashdance and session work for Michael Jackson) and Morton Stevens
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