Next Saturday, April 12, is certainly one of the most packed Record Store Days in recent memory. Since the list was announced, we drilled down on titles from Craft Recordings, Legacy Recordings, Rhino Records, Universal Music Group, Real Gone Music, Omnivore Recordings, BMG, Cooking Vinyl and Demon Music Group, as well as some notable titles that were getting later general releases on CD. Well, if you thought that was it, you're wrong! We pored and pored over the list and are here to share
Memphis' Beale Street is one of the most famous musical thoroughfares in America, known for the sounds of rhythm and blues, jazz, soul, and rock-and-roll that pulsate through its shops, restaurants, and bars. On the first weekend every May, The Beale Street Music Festival is staged, celebrating the city's diverse musical legacy. While COVID-19 sadly has kept the Festival once again from taking place, it's already set for 2022. And Omnivore Recordings has looked back on a special performance
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! New Order, Education Entertainment Recreation (Live at Alexandra Palace) (Rhino) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD/BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD/BD/3LP (Clear Vinyl) Box Set: New Order Store Education Entertainment Recreation (Live at Alexandra Palace) documents New Order's only U.K. show of 2018. The November 9 gig was played at London's Alexandra Palace
On the heels of last year's revelatory Dead Man's Pop set exploring the making of Don't Tell a Soul, Rhino has announced a new box set from The Replacements celebrating another of the Minneapolis band's finest albums. On October 9, 1987's Pleased to Meet Me - the immediate predecessor of Don't Tell a Soul - will get the deluxe treatment as a 3-CD/1-LP set (also available digitally) featuring a whopping 29 previously unreleased tracks. The 'Mats' fifth studio album, Pleased to Meet Me is
For many years, fans of power pop had their Magna Carta of a CD: Fantasy Records' two-fer of Big Star's #1 Record and Radio City, the primary records issued by the legendary Memphis band. Various vinyl reissues of the individual albums have come and gone, too, most notably the 2014 reissues on the Stax label. Now, both #1 Record and Radio City are coming back to vinyl on January 24 from Craft Recordings. Both albums will be newly remastered - all-analog! - by Jeff Powell at Memphis' Take Out
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. Record Store Day Black Friday is now almost upon us, so we thought we'd spotlight a few particularly exciting releases arriving to your local brick-and-mortar record shop! Here's our round up of RSD BF must-haves! We're kicking off with Sam's list, and then we'll follow with Randy and Joe's! Aretha Franklin, The Atlantic Singles Collection 1968
It's that time of year -- the temperatures are falling, the leaves about to change color. And that can only mean one thing: Record Store Day Black Friday announcements! You've seen Rhino, Universal and Craft's line-ups; now, take a look at what Omnivore Recordings and Real Gone Music have each unveiled for this year's celebrations. Let's take a look! Alex Chilton, My Rival (Omnivore) Omnivore Recordings invites listeners into an "alternate universe" with their 10" EP of previously unissued
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Prince, Musicology [Various Formats] (Legacy) 1-CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2-LP black vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2-LP purple vinyl: Prince Official Store Today, three of Prince's essential 2000s albums arrive on CD and, for the first time ever, LP. Musicology marked Prince's return to a major label and to the upper heights of the charts. It reached the Top Five on the Billboard Album Chart in
Few bands from the 1970s have seen as much resurgence in popularity as Big Star. Anchored by Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens, the Memphis-based power-pop group didn't make much of a commercial splash during their original years together, but their cult following has grown over the years. That's thanks in no small part to a series of fine reissues by Omnivore Recordings. In January, Omnivore will release Live On WLIR, a new, remastered version of Big Star's legendary 1974 radio broadcast. The
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! David Bowie, Loving the Alien (1983-1988) (Parlophone) 11CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 15LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada The fourth annual volume of Parlophone's ongoing series of box sets dedicated to the late David Bowie, Loving the Alien (1983-1988), arrives on 11 CDs or 15 vinyl LPs. This lavish set is filled with more exclusive material than any of its predecessors, as only three studio albums are
Two weeks ago, on July 27, Omnivore Recordings released Game Day from Peter Holsapple, the dB's co-founder and singer-songwriter's first album in 21 years. It was, of course, filled with all of the melodic hooks and incisive lyrical turns of phrase one would expect from the multi-faceted artist. Now, Omnivore has uncovered a much less expected piece of Holsapple's history - and one which converges with the label's ongoing efforts to restore and revisit the catalogue of Big Star's Alex
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Elton John, Diamonds [Various Formats] (UMe) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Elton John looks back on his extraordinary career with a new retrospective collection, available in 1-CD, 2-CD, 3-CD, and 2-LP formats. Get all of the details right here! R.E.M., Automatic for the
Omnivore Recordings has long been the destination for all things Big Star--and next year, the label will release one of the band's few official live concerts outside of the box set it debuted in. Live At Lafayette's Music Room, to be released January 12, showcases the legendary power pop band kicking off 1973 at the acclaimed Memphis venue. Co-founder Chris Bell had recently departed the group, leaving singer/guitarist Alex Chilton, bassist Andy Hummel and drummer Jody Stephens to continue as
Omnivore Recordings has kept the flame for Big Star burning brightly in recent years as the label continues to plumb the depths of the cult band's story from various angles. Two recent releases shed light on the solo works of Big Star's late musical heroes Alex Chilton and Chris Bell: an expanded reissue of Chilton's 1995 solo album A Man Called Destruction; and an updated, expanded version of Bell's I Am the Cosmos. The second album since Chilton's 1993 solo "comeback" Clichés, A Man Called
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Alex Chilton, A Man Called Destruction: Expanded Edition (Omnivore) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2-LP Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada In 1995, the late Big Star and Box Tops frontman Alex Chilton returned to Memphis' Ardent Studios, the site of his classic work with Big Star, to record A Man Called Destruction. Blending original songs with a host of eclectic covers from the likes of Chris Kenner ("Sick and
Omnivore Recordings has announced a pair of upcoming releases from two very different yet equally soulful singer-songwriters: Alex Chilton and Arthur Alexander. In 1995, the late Big Star and Box Tops frontman Alex Chilton returned to Memphis' Ardent Studios, the site of his classic work with Big Star, to record A Man Called Destruction. Blending original songs with a host of eclectic covers from the likes of Chris Kenner ("Sick and Tired"), Brian Wilson and Jan Berry via Jan & Dean
UPDATE 5/24/17 TO ORIGINAL POST OF 3/6/17: If you do as Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg says and "never travel far without a little Big Star," some new products related to the legendarily underrated Memphis rockers may find a place on your shelves. Set for release on June 16 from Stax Records and Craft Recordings, the new compilation The Best of Big Star tidily collects (on one CD, digitally, or 2 LPs playable at 45 RPM) 16 tracks from the legendary band's #1 Record, Radio City and
If you do as Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg says and "never travel far without a little Big Star," some new products related to the legendarily underrated Memphis rockers may find a place on your shelves. Concord Bicycle Music recently announced the springtime release of Thank You, Friends: Big Star's Third Live...and More. This exciting set pays tribute to the legendary power pop band's "lost" third album, recorded in 1974 but shelved until 1978, after the band broke up. In 2010,
Will the real Big Star’s Third please stand up? That’s a loaded question, for it’s possible that there never, in fact, was a “real” version of the album recorded at Memphis’ Ardent Studios in 1974 by Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens with producer-engineer Jim Dickinson, studio owner John Fry and engineer Richard Rosebrough. Chilton even asserted numerous times that the sessions were never intended to yield a Big Star album at all. (One potential name for the duo of Chilton and Stephens was
Omnivore Recordings has kept the legend of Big Star alive with a number of projects over the years including the release of frontman Alex Chilton's Free Again: The 1970 Sessions, the soundtrack to the acclaimed documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, and Big Star: Live in Memphis. Now, the label has turned its attention to its most expansive Big Star release yet: a definitive look into the making of the band's third album. The 3-CD collection Complete Third, due on October 14, includes
For Alex Chilton, coping with the legacy of The Box Tops wasn’t always easy. As the band’s frontman – and future cult hero as leader of Big Star – once ruminated to the San Francisco Chronicle, “I guess my life has been a series of flukes in the record business. The first thing I ever did was the biggest record that I’ll ever have.” He was, of course, speaking of “The Letter,” the Wayne Carson Thompson song that opens Raven Records’ new 2-CD collection The Original Albums 1967-1969 containing
For years, fans of power pop have had their Magna Carta of a CD: Fantasy Records' two-fer of Big Star's #1 Record and Radio City, the primary records issued by the legendary Memphis band. On September 2, that configuration changes with the release of both albums newly remastered on individual discs. Both albums will be newly remastered from the original analog tapes (approved by original engineer/Ardent Records founder John Fry and allowing for Mastered for iTunes/24-bit hi-res downloads) and
A potentially embarassing confession: it took the death of Big Star frontman Alex Chilton for me to realize just what I knew about him. I knew his name was the title of a Replacements song (thanks, Rock Band), I'd known of Big Star thanks to the justifiable hype over last year's box set from Rhino and I'd known a handful of his most famous, very solid compositions that he either wrote or popularized ("Thirteen," "The Letter," "In the Street") through inevitable cultural osmosis (thanks, That