It's time to break out the piña coladas. This Friday, the long-running NOW series will release its second volume of NOW That's What I Call Yacht Rock. This collection of classic songs in the "yacht rock" genre - think: seventies and early eighties soft rock with memorable melodies, sparkling productions, and plenty of saxophones - arrives on CD and in digital/streaming formats, with a 2-LP vinyl set arriving on July 3. With eighteen songs, NOW That's What I Call Yacht Rock 2 boasts return
Among its many exciting releases, Omnivore has a trio of albums due soon from three very different rock artists: Chris Hillman, pre-Raspberries band The Choir, and NRBQ. Last year, Chris Hillman (veteran of groups including The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Desert Rose Band, and supergroup The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band) released the acclaimed album Bidin' My Time - only his seventh solo album. Produced by Tom Petty (one of the late superstar's last projects), the LP reaffirmed
This past April, New York's Radio City Music Hall hosted a prestigious premiere. The film was Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives, and the screening was accompanied by an all-star concert featuring Barry Manilow, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Carly Simon, and others celebrating the life of the music legend. Beginning on October 3, Apple Music will exclusively stream the Chris Perkel-directed documentary, and today, September 27, Legacy Recordings has digitally released an exclusive
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Neil Young, Official Release Series Discs 5-8 / Official Release Series Discs 8.5-12 (Reprise) Official Release Series Discs 5-8: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. Official Release Series Discs 8.5-12: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. Finally, CD editions of Young's second and third Official Release Series boxes are available, spanning 1973 to 1979 (Time Fades Away (1973), On The Beach (1974), Tonight's The Night (1975),
The House of Blues picked a hell of a hometown act to open their Cleveland location in the fall of 2004: for the first time in nearly 30 years, the original line-up of power pop heroes the Raspberries reunited on stage. That magical night will now be available for all to enjoy, thanks to a new 2CD set from Omnivore Records due this August! Pop Art Live collects the full set by Eric Carmen (vocals/guitar/piano), Wally Bryson (guitar), Dave Smalley (bass) and Jim Bonfanti (drums) as they played
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! The Impressions, The Best of The Impressions: The Curtom Years (Varese Vintage) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Varese Vintage has an impressive line-up of releases this week! First up, the label has brought together 18 prime cuts from the premier purveyors of Chicago soul, Curtis Mayfield and the legendary Impressions. This set features singles released on the Curtom label between 1968 and 1976 including the R&B hits "Fool for
When Eric Carmen and Wally Bryson of Cyrus Eyrie teamed up with Jim Bonfanti and Dave Smalley of The Choir, the result was pop bliss. The Raspberries emerged from the ashes from the two bands, and over the course of four albums - three with the original line-up, and one with just Carmen and Bryson remaining - they came to define power pop. Yet today, some might wonder: Why is the Cleveland, Ohio band so fondly remembered despite only placing one Top 5 single in the U.S. and two more Top 20s?
Analog Spark is going all the way with its next vinyl LP reissue. The audiophile imprint of Razor and Tie has recently made a 180-gram deluxe reissue of The Raspberries' classic 1972 self-titled debut available on its website, with an arrival at Amazon and other retailers on March 11. Over the course of just four albums released between 1972 and 1974, The Raspberries positioned themselves as legitimate heirs to the thrones of The Beatles, The Beach Boys and The Byrds. With jangly guitars,
The first track on Legacy Recordings’ new double-disc anthology The Essential Eric Carmen (Arista/Legacy 88883745522) is titled, appropriately enough, “Get the Message.” And the message relayed by its 30 nuggets comes through loud and clear: whether as power pop prince, classically-inspired MOR balladeer or nostalgic yet contemporary eighties rocker, Eric Carmen had the goods. Young lust never sounded as thrilling, as exuberant, or as pretty as it did in the hands of The Raspberries. Over