Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Elvis Presley, Back in Nashville (RCA/Legacy) 4CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP Colored Vinyl: Graceland Official Store Elvis: Back in Nashville boasts 82 recordings on 4 CDs (or digitally) from The King's final Nashville sessions in 1971. With country, folk, holiday and gospel songs, pop, and rock and roll, these seminal tracks represent some of the most richly diverse in
Exactly thirty years ago tomorrow, September 24, 1991, Nirvana's Nevermind hit store shelves. To celebrate this new anniversary, Geffen/UMe has announced new reissues of the album in a variety of formats including two editions of a super deluxe box set: an 8-LP version with a bonus 7-inch single, and a 5-CD version with a Blu-ray. All editions and formats are due out on November 12. It is the rare album that can be said to have changed the landscape of popular music, but that is no
With Public Enemy’s Chuck D engaged as the Record Store Day Ambassador for 2014, it’s only appropriate that one of his own records is arriving this Saturday as a special limited edition vinyl platter. The new reissue of Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back will be joined on RSD by a host of other vinyl goodies from Universal Music Enterprises (UMe). Previously unreleased music from Frank Zappa (previewing the upcoming 40th anniversary reissue of Apostrophe) and the
Nirvana, In Utero: 20th Anniversary Edition (DGC/UMe) The grunge icon's final album is greatly expanded in numerous formats for its two-decade mark, with B-sides, a new mix of the album and the band's Live and Loud concert feature from MTV on CD and DVD. Check the post above to figure out which one suits you best! 1CD Standard remaster: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 1CD Expanded remaster: Target (U.S.) 2CD Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 3CD/1DVD Super Deluxe Box: Amazon U.S. / Amazon
In what appears to be a repeat of a successful formula and a sign of what it takes to get even the biggest catalogue releases to big box retail shelves, Universal will again pair with Target stores for an exclusive version of a Nirvana reissue. Following 2011's exclusive single-disc expansion of Nevermind - which put the first disc of the deluxe edition in its own jewel case, allowing fans to buy simply the remastered album and all the original B-sides in one set instead of any of the
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-uet7twNu0] The above video repurposes a vintage advertisement to tell fans that UMe is planning a 20th anniversary reissue of Nirvana's final album, 1993's In Utero, on September 24. In its own weird way, the video - featuring band members Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl being coached through a surreal lamaze class by comedian Bobcat Goldthwait - indicates how unusual the album was. In Utero was the polar opposite of 1991's
The world of rock and roll is littered with captivating tales of what-ifs and alternate routes that pushed a musician in one direction instead of another. One such captivating story of late is that of Jason Everman, a seemingly unassuming Army Ranger today who at one point was a member of the Seattle grunge scene, playing in both Nirvana and Soundgarden before both rocketed to success in 1991. What's particularly interesting about that New York Times piece on Everman, other than its subject, is
Here in the U. S. of A., Black Friday is almost upon us: that unusual date following the prior day of giving thanks, in which consumers make a mad dash to the local big-box store, mall or shopping center to procure bargains for the holiday season ahead. Retailers are controversially beginning Black Friday “festivities” even earlier than usual this year, with many sales starting on Thanksgiving Day itself and not even at midnight but in the early part of the evening. For a number of recent
We're in the Top 20 of Rolling Stone's Greatest Albums of All Time list, going through the various reissues and expansions of each one! This time, we have a Boss, a champion of a '90s rock revolution, a poet of the '60s - and starting right now, the King of Pop himself. Read on! 20. Michael Jackson, Thriller (Epic, 1982) Nine disparate songs, helmed by a producer of straightforward jazz and R&B, and performed by a 24-year-old former child star-turned-gawky but dedicated perfectionist. It
It's Tuesday, but most of the new music this week has already been out for a day. But assuming you were too busy to get out to the shops, here's a look at what's new. And there's quite a bit! Various Artists, Phil Spector Presents The Philles Album Collection (Phil Spector Records/Legacy) Six of the first seven Philles albums presented in mono, along with a bonus disc of those delightfully out-there instrumental B-sides. Seriously, have you heard any of them? They're crazy. In a good way, that
For those of us who still savor the experience of shopping in a physical environment, Record Store Day has become a yearly tradition. It’s sometimes frustrating and sometimes exciting, but few could argue with an event that spotlights the hard-working independent music retailers out there who believe that brick-and-mortar retail can still thrive in the iTunes era. (Amen to that!) A more recent offshoot of Record Store Day has been the mini-event held each Black Friday, or the day after
It finally happened. After around 20 months at the helm of The Second Disc, I think I've finally stumbled over a reissue that feels...dare I say it...misguided. Not entirely misguided, mind you, but misguided enough that it took me far longer than anticipated to bang out some thoughts on the title at hand, to understand what it meant for all of us as collectors and enthusiasts of catalogue material. Not a total strikeout, but a hit that barely gets a runner to second base, when it should have
'Tis the season! The big guns for the fourth quarter are starting to be drawn. Elvis Presley, The Young Man with the Big Beat / Elvis Presley: Legacy Edition (RCA/Legacy) The newest Elvis box set is all about 1956: five CDs of complete studio masters, outtakes, vintage audio interviews and live material. For the casual fan, the Elvis Presley Legacy Edition includes the Elvis Presley and Elvis LPs with the hit non-LP singles of that era. (Official site) Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon:
It's about a week until Nirvana's Nevermind inundates record store shelves, and it seemed like a good idea to sort everything out, for the sake of clarity when September 27 rolls around. Of course, as previously reported, there are four major formats for this reissue: a single-disc remaster of the original album, a double-disc deluxe edition, a four-vinyl LP set and a four-CD/one-DVD super deluxe edition. It's worth noting, however, that the vinyl set will street a week later, on October 4. And
Jimi Hendrix, Winterland / Hendrix in the West / Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight Festival / The Dick Cavett Show (Experience Hendrix/Legacy) Another wave of Hendrix catalogue titles from Legacy, all of a live nature. The Winterland set captures The Jimi Hendrix Experience's legendary run at the venue of the same name over four discs (or one, if you're into the whole brevity thing), while In the West provides an expanded, slightly alternate presentation of the posthumous live LP. The
UPDATE: The track listing is now at the bottom of the post, courtesy of the NME! Original post: Back on June 22, we reported on Geffen Records/Universal Music Enterprises' plans for a 20th anniversary edition of Nirvana's 1991 Nevermind, originally released on September 24 of that year. New details have been released on the set which will arrive in stores on September 27, just three days after the exact anniversary. Universal has stopped short of providing a complete track listing, but one
Back in April, in a Back Tracks post commemorating Nirvana on the occasion of Kurt Cobain's passing, we declared it "inconceivable that the powers-that-be at Geffen/UMe wouldn't be thinking of reissuing [breakthrough album Nevermind] for the two-decade mark (especially with the exact anniversary falling in November, just in time for the box set frenzy associated with the fourth quarter)." At the time, the band's Hormoaning EP had received a domestic vinyl reissue for Record Store Day and 20th
Thanks to Slicing Up Eyeballs for this neat tip over the weekend: 1991: The Year Punk Broke is making its debut on DVD later this year. This documentary of Sonic Youth and Nirvana's European tour of 1991 - a precursor to the breakthrough Nirvana would experience with Nevermind some 20 years ago - was released on VHS and laserdisc many years ago, and featured performances by both bands as well as other luminaries of the age including Dinosaur Jr., The Ramones and more. The DVD will feature a
Seventeen years ago today, Generation X lost an icon when Kurt Cobain, the talented, troubled frontman for Nirvana, took his own life in his Seattle home. Nirvana were three albums into their career, but had already redefined music for an entire cachet of disaffected youth. The genre that came to be known as grunge music, based on frequently alternating dynamics, heavy distortion and angst-filled lyrics, was forged largely under the songwriting tactics of Cobain, who very reluctantly accepted
Mark your calendars if you haven't already, music fans: April 16 is the fourth annual Record Store Day! What started as a small declaration of independence for brick-and-mortar, mom-and-pop record stores in the face of industry decline has blossomed into a worldwide celebration with goodies provided by major and independent labels. And because lots of record store fans are also big into catalogue stuff like you and me, a lot of the RSD exclusives focus on reissues or anniversary repressings in
Epic/Legacy will release The Ultimate Collection by Sade on May 3. Intended to tease the band's long-awaited summer tour, the set will feature tracks from all the band's albums, from 1984's Diamond Life to 2010's Soldier of Love, and will feature three unreleased tracks, including a new remix of Solider track "The Moon and the Sky" featuring rapper Jay-Z. Those who pre-order the set through the band's official site will get exclusive access to ticket pre-sales for recently-announced dates
As we fast approach April 16 - this year's Record Store Day, the music geek's Christmas - we're starting to see more vinyl reissues happening in independent stores especially for the occasion. Two of the most recent ones take us back to the rock and roll sound of the 1990s, from traditional grunge to spacier, experimental styles. Twenty years ago, Matthew "Slim" Moon formed a record label in Olympia, Washington, with the intention of putting out eclectic records, from spoken word to punk. That