In 1979, Ace Records of London released Volume One of The Ace Story on LP, celebrating the music of its namesake label, Ace Records of Jackson (Mississippi). Roughly five years later, Ace issued the fifth and final volume in the series. Fast-forward to 2010. That was when Ace revisited The Ace Story with a CD reissue of that original 1979 LP, expanded with bonus tracks. The new and improved Ace Story series has itself just come to a close with the recent release of Volume 5 on CD. The new
Skydog, Celebrated: Life of Duane Allman Explored in New Career-Spanning Box Set
Duane Allman was just 24 when he perished on the streets of Macon, Georgia, the victim of an accident involving his motorcycle and a flatbed truck carrying a lumber crane. Yet in a short but intense period of time, the Nashville-born slide guitar virtuoso had established a reputation as a creative and versatile musician with invention to spare. His distinct tones on a Wilson Pickett recording caught the ear of Atlantic Records’ Jerry Wexler, and while based at Rick Hall’s Muscle Shoals studio,
Intrada Premieres Scores to "Joe Kidd," "Flight of the Intruder"
This week, Intrada's shaking off the dust on some little-heard, unreleased scores by two big names in film composing. We've heard and seen composer Basil Poledouris and director John Milius enjoy great success with their movie collaborations, namely Conan The Barbarian and Red Dawn in the early '80s. For this 1991 Vietnam War flick (a favorite topic of the outspoken Milius), Poledouris was again on hand to create a rousing, militaristic action score. Never before released on CD, this disc
Duke Ellington Is "In Grand Company" with Ella, Basie, Satchmo, Coltrane and More
The legendary composer-arranger-pianist-bandleader Duke Ellington is In Grand Company on a new collection of the same name from Starbucks Entertainment, Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings. Much has been written of Ellington’s fertile creative partnership with “Take the ‘A’ Train” composer Billy Strayhorn, and indeed, Strayhorn is represented on this disc. But he’s just one of the many, varied artists represented on this collection’s fifteen tracks. Spanning four decades of recording on
Big Beat Has "Too Much to Dream" with Two New Psychedelic Sixties Collections
When one thinks of musical psychedelia, the city that most often comes to mind is San Francisco. That rock epicenter hosted the likes of The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Blue Cheer and Moby Grape at venues including The Fillmore, The Matrix and the Avalon Ballroom. But psych-rock exploration wasn’t limited to San Francisco, with New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago and Austin among the other American spots making major contributions to the genre.
Such Greater Heights: Sub Pop Reissues The Postal Service
It was one chance group of collaborations between one of the most acclaimed indie-rock frontmen and a celebrated electronic producer - arguably both similar to and unlike anything either man had done before. And, bolstered by some unforgettable songs, it's a collaboration from which the world anxiously awaits more. Now, there is more - sort of: The Postal Service, the duo of Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello, will expand and reissue their sole LP, Give Up, with a bonus disc
Back Tracks: Adam Ant
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o41A91X5pns] It's the statement few in the Internet age expected to type: today, Adam Ant releases his first album in nearly 20 years. Adam Ant is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying the Gunnar's Daughter (try saying that three times fast) features brand-new original compositions by Ant with longtime collaborators/guitarists Marco Pirroni and Boz Boorer, and is the first album on his new label, the eponymous Blueblack Hussar Records. Early critical notes
Rare Gems Hidden in New "Playlist" Wave
The latest wave of Playlist releases is almost here from Legacy Recordings, and the series dedicated to collecting “the hits plus the fan favorites” doesn’t look to disappoint. On January 29, Playlist volumes will be released for an eclectic cadre of artists in a variety of genres: vintage metal (Accept), traditional pop (Andy Williams), blue-eyed soul (The Box Tops), classic rock (Mountain, The Doobie Brothers, Harry Nilsson), country (Sara Evans, The Highwaymen), hip-hop (G. Love and Special
Morning of Their Lives: Bee Gees' Original Australian Albums Reissued on CD by Festival Label
Though Bee Gees’ First introduced Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb to the world at large, the album title was actually a misnomer. The Bee Gees’ first album was, in fact, The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs, released in Australia in 1965 on Festival Records’ Leedon label. Two albums were released in Australia before the Gibbs’ international debut, with a third “odds-and-ends” collection having arrived in late 1967 just months after Bee Gees’ First. The Bee Gees’ Australian output has
Stephen Stills Turns Back the Pages with New Retrospective Box Set
If, like me, there’s a gaping hole in your box set shelf between “C” (for David Crosby’s 2006 Voyage) and “N” (for Graham Nash’s 2009 Reflections), fear no more. That hole is ready to be filled with a March 26 release from the third member of the Crosby, Stills and Nash triumvirate. Carry On celebrates the career of guitarist-singer-songwriter Stephen Stills in a new 4-CD box drawing on his legendary associations with CSN, CSNY, Buffalo Springfield, Manassas and of course, his solo projects
Review: Roger Cook, "Running with the Rat Pack"
The rules of pop music were changing, and Roger Cook didn't want to be behind the times. The songwriter of such nuggets as "You've Got Your Troubles," "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing," "My Baby Loves Lovin'" and "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress" had long balanced his work as a behind-the-scenes songwriter with a singing career. As one-half of David and Jonathan (with co-writer Roger Greenaway) and a member of Blue Mink, Cook was a familiar vocalist, and as a background singer, he added
Numero is (Possibly) Purple on Forthcoming LP Reissue
Nearly 35 years after the unceremonious release of The Lewis Conection, a local Minneapolis band's sole funk LP, The Numero Group is resurrecting the disc, giving it a premiere release next month. (It's part of an forthcoming phase at Numero to unearth significant and rare recordings from the early days of the Minneapolis sound.) What makes this set so special? According to popular lore, while recording the album at Minneapolis' Sound 80 Studios, The Lewis Connection invited an 18-year-old
Big Break Goes Disco with KC and the Sunshine Band, George McCrae, Johnnie Taylor
The Temptations had sunshine on a rainy day, John Denver had it on his shoulders, and the O'Jays took their cue from an old standard to address a loved one as "my sunshine." But Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch, forming Miami's KC and the Sunshine Band, had sunshine both in the band name and in the joyful, exultant brand of music they played. Big Break Records has recently reissued one title recorded by those disco titans, one title produced by them, and one with another connection to the
Duran Duran's TV Mania Project Resurrected for Release in Spring
As previously reported, TV Mania - the short-lived, little-heard side project of Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes and former guitarist Warren Cuccurullo - is finally getting a release after years in the vault. The concept sounds surprisingly relevant: a musical treatise on an overly media-saturated couple, culled from snippets of original studio creations and found sound. But it's not something crafted by an upstart artist in 2013 - it was finished nearly 15 years ago, before the Internet really took
Mary Wells' Early Motown Albums Collected in Mono on New Release
The third major Mary Wells release in recent months has arrived courtesy Ace Records’ Kent label. The One Who Really Loves You/Two Lovers combines Wells’ second and third Motown long-players on one remastered CD, with every track taken from the original mono masters for the first time in the compact disc era. Though Wells’ time at Motown was relatively brief, her star burned brightest there. The first true superstar to emerge from Hitsville, she was also the first of the company’s artists to
Don't Cry For Me, Princess Leia: John Williams, Andrew Lloyd Webber Go Disco
What do a beloved Broadway musical and an iconic sci-fi epic have to do with dance music pioneer Boris Midney? Plenty, as it turns out. Midney, a producer and arranger who came to prominence in the disco era with his expansive 48-track productions, recorded under a number of guises: Caress, Beautiful Bend, Masquerade, Double Discovery, to name a few. And The Demon Music Group’s Harmless Records imprint indeed does have a double discovery! On January 26 in the U.K. and one week later in the
Real Gone Announces Hendrix-Produced LP from Cat Mother, Plus Grateful Dead, Rod McKuen, The Hello People, Freddie King, More
From a lost classic produced by Jimi Hendrix to Grateful Dead playing Warren Zevon, Real Gone Music’s February release slate has a little bit of soul, rock, pop, blues and even poetry! The label founded by Gordon Anderson and Gabby Castellana has an impressive line-up of titles due on February 26, including the first-ever standalone CD reissue of the Richard Perry-produced Reprise debut of Fanny (the first all-female rock group signed to a major label), a definitive 2-CD singles collection from
Beat The Boots: Digital Volumes of "Motown Unreleased 1962" Quietly Released Online
There's been much talk this week of Bob Dylan's 50th Anniversary Collection, a (very) limited edition title released in Europe to protect the singer's 1962 recordings from entering the public domain there. But we can report that it's not alone. On December 18, Universal Music very quietly released six exciting, digital-only compilations under the umbrella of Motown Unreleased: 1962. The New York Times has been among those speculating that the 120 tracks contained on the six "albums" have all
Little Bit O'Soul: Thelma Houston, Syreeta, Nancy Wilson, Brecker Brothers, George Duke Reissued
Soul music was alive and well in 2012, and some of the finest reissues arrived courtesy of Cherry Red's SoulMusic Records label. With the label already looking forward to 2013 releases from artists including Ronnie Laws, Patti Austin, Stephanie Mills, George Duke, Gwen Guthrie and Freda Payne (more on those soon), the time is right to revisit some of the year-end titles that might have fallen under the radar! In addition to celebrating the post-Motown recordings of Mary Wells at 20th Century
Mad Season's "Above" Rediscovered for Expansive Deluxe Edition
Though the group isn’t often spoken of in the same breath as Crosby, Stills and Nash or The Traveling Wilburys, Mad Season was a bona fide supergroup for the 1990s. The Seattle-based group of musicians - Layne Staley of Alice in Chains, guitarist Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, drummer/percussionist Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees, and bassist John Baker Saunders of The Walkabouts and The Lamont Cranston Band - joined together in 1994 and released just one album, 1995’s Columbia Records release
We Love You Conrad, Oh Yes We Do: "Bye Bye Birdie" Film Soundtrack Turns 50, Is Newly-Expanded
Gray skies are gonna clear up... More than seven years before the first Tribe of Hair let the sun shine in, another cast of characters brought rock (and roll!) to the New York stage. Michael Stewart, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams’ smash hit musical Bye Bye Birdie skyrocketed its leading actors Dick Van Dyke and Chita Rivera to greater fame in 1960, alongside director/choreographer Gower Champion, in a sweet but timely tale of a hip-swiveling rocker about to go off to the Army and the one
Information on "Inspiration": Shuggie Otis Returns with New Tour, Expanded Album with Unreleased Songs (UPDATED WITH TRACK LIST)
Shuggie Otis was born into a musical family, the son of Johnny Otis, the "Godfather of Rhythm and Blues." Bandleader, songwriter and performer Johnny (real name: Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes) scored successes with Etta James, "Little" Esther Phillips, Big Mama Thornton, Johnny Ace, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and more, so it could have been no surprise that Shuggie (born Johnny Alexander Veliotes Jr.) would follow in his father's footsteps. A multi-instrumentalist primarily known for his work
In Case You Missed It: Stand Up and Cheer! Intrada Releases "Hoosiers" Soundtrack and More
We begin our first day of catalogue coverage for 2013 by...keeping up with some titles that came out last year that slipped through our wires. (I know, I know. Really, it just sat in drafts for a week or two while I kept wrapping presents instead of finalizing it. -Ed.) Rest assured, though, that these - the final three catalogue soundtrack releases from Intrada Records - are worth your time in any year. First up is one of Intrada's most intriguing releases in awhile, in that it's two scores
The Year in Reissues: The 2012 Gold Bonus Disc Awards
Wow! Was it just over a year ago when a rather dubious report began circulating (that, shockingly, was picked up by many otherwise-reputable publications) that proclaimed the death of the CD was secretly scheduled by the major labels for 2012? Well, 2012 has come and (almost) gone, and it might have been the most super-sized year in recent memory for reissues, deluxe and otherwise, from labels new and old. Here at the Second Disc, we consider our annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards a companion
Second Discmas 2012: And The Winners Are...
Here at The Second Disc, the holiday season is the perfect time to do what we love to do best: share the gift of music. For the second year in a row, we have we reached out to some of our favorite reissue labels and we’ve teamed with them to play Santa Claus to our awesome and faithful readers. It’s called – what else? – Second Discmas, and it’s just drawn to its close. So, as we wish all of you a safe, healthy, happy and very merry Christmas, we'd like to congratulate the following winners.
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