Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. The latest features new and old soundtracks, EPs and holiday favorites and much more! "Weird Al" Yankovic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story - Original Soundtrack (Ear Booker/Roku/Legacy) (iTunes / Amazon) This weekend sees the release of "Weird Al" Yankovic's second foray into feature film: a
While The Second Disc prides itself on connecting people to reissues and box sets they can keep on their shelves, it's no secret that listening audiences are also digital - catalogue music lovers, too - and our passion is connecting people to music from the past that they might adore. So we've introduced a new Saturday feature: The Weekend Stream, which focuses on hidden gems that recently made it to digital channels that might make your playlists a little brighter! The Jacksons, Triumph /
While The Second Disc prides itself on connecting people to reissues and box sets they can keep on their shelves, it's no secret that listening audiences are also digital - catalogue music lovers, too - and our passion is connecting people to music from the past that they might adore. So we've introduced a new Saturday feature: The Weekend Stream, which focuses on hidden gems that recently made it to digital channels that might make your playlists a little brighter! Mark Morrison, Return of
Audiences and critics may not have fully understood Hackers when it was released exactly 25 years ago - but the cyber-cult classic continues to be a touchpoint in the public's early understanding of the nascent Internet. Next week, its original soundtrack is being expanded for its anniversary, complete with some surprising cameos from a classic rock legend. The film followed a group of young, elite, underground programmers who accidentally stumble upon a computer virus-assisted plot to
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
The major labels aren't the only ones who'll be part of Record Store Day Black Friday this year. A number of impressive indies (and other major labels with notable catalog friendly material) have announced exciting additions to the RSDBF slate. What's more, we've got coverage of some exciting new music from artists as diverse as Paul McCartney, Tank and the Bangas, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, and Norah Jones! First up... Chuck Berry, Chuck Berry In London (Elemental) By 1965, the British
In recent years, Cherry Red Records has made waves with their box set celebrations of music eras gone by. From late-'70s Scottish independent releases and '60s Baroque pop, to '80s shoegaze and even the avant-garde sound explorations of Edgard Varese and Karlheinz Stockhausen, the label has a reputation for their meticulous deep-dives into music subcultures. In November, Cherry Red put the spotlight on the late-'70s U.K. pop-rock scene with Harmony In My Head: UK Power Pop & New Wave,
This 3-CD set is a musical exploration of the development of British New Wave. While in the U.S. "new wave" was a lose term applied to pretty much any pop that came out in the late '70s and early '80s, U.K. purveyors used the term to refer to their deliberate reaction to, if not rejection of, the punk musical aesthetic. It eventually mutated into the Mod Revival--members of which drew greatly from the melody-driven pop of the '60s--and later to another unique British psychedelic strand in the
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! The Who, Tommy: Live at the Royal Albert Hall (Eagle Rock) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 3LP Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. In spring 2017, in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust, The Who played the classic Tommy in full, plus an encore set of seven greatest hits at London's historic Royal Albert Hall. This release includes every song from
Anyone who's gotten really in the weeds with U.K. pop and rock has likely marveled at the work of Chris Difford. The London-born songwriter is best known as one half of the central brain trust of Squeeze, offering reedy countermelodies and biting lyrics alongside his longtime creative partner and co-founder Glenn Tilbrook. Squeeze are set to tour the U.K. and America this fall, with their 15th album, The Knowledge, due in October. But before that, Difford is taking some solo time in the form
Arguably one of the finest British songwriting duos since Lennon and McCartney, Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook have made perfect, powerful pop as leaders of Squeeze since the release of their first material in 1977--all the way up to an out-of-nowhere triumph with 2015's Cradle to the Grave, the band's first album of new material in more than 15 years. Since that initial dissolution of the duo's partnership after 1998's Domino, both Chris and Glenn sought to found their voices as solo
Squeeze songwriter Glenn Tilbrook is going back to the band's first end for his final entry in a series of demo releases. Tilbrook, the man behind the voice, guitar and music of England's most underrated rock band, began a five-part clearing of the vaults almost 10 years ago, when Squeeze, the band he formed with lyricist/vocalist Chris Difford in the 1970s, began their third distinct iteration as a band. As Difford, Tilbrook, bassist John Bentley (with the group from 1980 to 1982) and
Like some sort of blue-eyed soul version of Zelig, Paul Carrack has been a fixture of British rock for decades. As frontman of pub-rock Ace, he took "How Long" to the U.K. Top 20 and to No. 3 on Billboard's U.S. chart. He joined Roxy Music for their reunion album Manifesto in 1979, then sang and played keyboards for Squeeze on their iconic East Side Story album in 1981, which yielded the unforgettable "Tempted." Even while eking out a solo career post-Squeeze (enjoying U.S. hits with "Don't
On its surface, it seems kind of crazy to make a compilation of tunes from A&M Records. There are plenty of labels with clearer narrative arcs: Columbia was a hotbed for melodic singer-songwriters in the '60s and '70s, from Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel to Springsteen and Billy Joel. Burgeoning soul fans started with Motown and graduated to Stax or Atlantic, depending on their region. ZTT was the place for avant-garde dance-pop/rock in the '80s, much like Elektra was the source for dreamy
Frank Zappa, Official Reissues #15-26 (Zappa Records/UMe) FZ's 1972-1979 discography, almost entirely sourced from original analog masters. (Joe breaks it all down for you here!) Various Artists, A&M 50: The Anniversary Collection (A&M/UMe) Three discs of hits and favorites from a most eclectic of major labels. Elvis Presley, A Boy from Tupelo: The Complete 1953-1955 Recordings (Follow That Dream) The King's complete Sun tenure, with single masters, alternates, live takes and more -
Ask the most voracious of music trivia buffs what "A&M Records" stood for and they'll tell you simply: Herb Alpert, noted jazz trumpeter and bandleader; and music promoter Jerry Moss, a duo who crafted the label from Alpert's garage in 1962. 50 years later, with the upcoming release of the three-disc A&M 50: The Anniversary Collection, it's clear that A&M stood for something else, too: one of the most intriguingly eclectic rosters in pop history, encompassing everything from jazz
Catalysis (ca-tal-y-sis): The action of a catalyst, especially an increase in the rate of a chemical reaction. With his induction into Ace Records’ Producers series, John Cale joins an esteemed group including Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Sly Stone, Phil Spector and Burt Bacharach. If Cale isn’t always thought of in the same breath as those giants, it’s simply because his career has been so diverse, encompassing writing, performing and arranging for artists ranging from The Stooges to
Here's a treat for any of you British pop fans out there: another series of demos from Squeeze songwriter Glenn Tilbrook. When Daylight Appears: The Demo Tapes 1985-1991 spotlights Squeeze at one of their most underrated stages in a wildly underrated career. In 1985, the band ended a three-year breakup, reuniting singers/songwriters guitarists Tilbrook and Chris Difford, keyboardist Jools Holland (increasingly known outside of Squeeze for his burgeoning television host career on The Tube),
It looks like we finally can expect Paul McCartney's Concord catalogue program to start up on September 28. Amazon has a pre-order link up for the promised reissue of Band on the Run for that date. That same date also sees a new title from Legacy: a CD/DVD edition of George Michael's excellent solo debut Faith (1987). You can pre-order it as well, though there's no word on bonus content yet (or if it will be included as a Legacy Edition title). (Thanks to Pause & Play for both
Today's installment of Reissue Theory is going to tread over familiar ground, in honor of two bands who turned out some great live sets last night at New Jersey's State Theater: Cheap Trick and Squeeze. Though both bands have their share of hardcore fanatics, they didn't seem to be as vocal last night - at least one person was heard musing after the show that neither band catered to the greatest-hits crowd (Cheap Trick's set mixed most of the favorite early tracks with new material - the band
If The Second Disc has any European readers, allow me to express my intense jealousy that Squeeze, one of the best British pop bands I can name, is embarking on a tour in your neck of the woods later in the year. It pleases me that Squeeze is not an unknown entity in the United States (the first Squeeze concert I partook in, at Radio CityMusic Hall in 2008, looked pretty sold out), but ask any casual or younger music fan and you'll likely get blank stares. This may change if you sing a few bars
The other day I was talking about how us catalogue fans can sometimes end up wanting that one missing track to add to our collections. I used the 45 version of Billy Joel's "Sometimes a Fantasy," which runs well past the fade-out on the LP, as an example. Interestingly enough, I realized that the track also adhered to another concept I realized I'm enamored of concerning music in general. When I was a kid, I was always interested in the idea of a fade-out. You'd be listening to a song, getting
The always-excellent Matt Rowe at MusicTAP posts news, reviews and insightful commentary three times a week on his site, and today's post got me pretty excited, because it says A&M is planning a reissue of Squeeze's 1980 album, Argybargy. If you know Squeeze for their few stateside radio hits ("Tempted," "Black Coffee in Bed," "Pulling Mussels (from the Shell)"), this is probably the album to dive into. With singles such as "Pulling Mussels" and "Another Nail in My Heart" or concert