Micky Dolenz always attracts a crowd whenever he’s performing one of his hits-packed shows. Whether Dolenz is playing a large theatre or an intimate nightclub, the consummate entertainer brings the goods. Now, the Monkees specialists at 7a Records are unveiling a particularly exciting treat: a brand-new live album from Micky, and his first to be recorded with an orchestra. Micky Dolenz & The American Metropole Orchestra: Out of Nowhere will hit stores on November 17 in the U.K. (and one week later in the U.S.) on compact disc as well as a…
I’m a Believer: Super Deluxe “More of The Monkees” Coming In December
There’s more on the way from The Monkees – More of The Monkees, in fact! The long-awaited Super Deluxe Edition of the band’s classic 1967 sophomore album has been confirmed for arrival from Rhino on December 15, with 91 tracks on three CDs – 55 of which are previously unreleased! This collection lives up to its Super Deluxe description with a plethora of alternate takes, new and vintage mixes, and perhaps most excitingly, newly-discovered live concert material from 1967. This new edition expands upon the 2006 2-CD iteration, with producer Andrew Sandoval…
Listen to the Man: 7a Records Releases Mike Nesmith Solo Show On CD, Vinyl
By 1975, Michael Nesmith’s bona fides as a groundbreaking pioneer of country-rock were well established. After his first solo LP, 1968’s orchestral The Wichita Train Whistle Sings, the once and future Monkee had released six well-received albums and yielded a pair of hit singles, “Joanne” and “Silver Moon”- not to mention “Different Drum,” a major hit for Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys. On November 27, 1975, Nesmith recorded an intimate set in London at the BBC Paris Theatre, during which he performed his recent solo hits and even (sorta) looked back…
The Monkees, Yardbirds, Andy Williams, 5th Dimension Featured On “Songs of Harry Nilsson”
Randy Newman once observed of his friend Harry Nilsson, “The records Harry made, and the first records I made, it was like The Rolling Stones never existed.” Indeed, before his famously chronicled lifestyle as a Hollywood hellraiser threatened to overshadow his reputation as a talent nonpareil (and left his once-angelic voice in tatters), Nilsson had carved out an artful niche of wit and whimsy. He expressed his musical muse in gentle psychedelia, baroque pop, folk rock, vaudeville pastiche, and bossa nova, and paid beautiful homage to his artistic inspirations including Newman and…
The Monkees Celebrated On New Benefit Release “Listen to the Bands”
With its latest project, 7a Records has invited Monkees fans to Listen to the Bands – yes, plural. This recent 25-track collection features modern, independent artists all tackling Davy, Micky, Mike, and Peter’s classic songbook – and making it even more special, all profits from the limited edition album will be donated by the label to the Davy Jones Equine Memorial Foundation. Appropriately, curators Glenn Gretlund and Iain Lee of 7a have made sure that many of the famous songwriting names that dot the band’s discography are here, too, including Tommy Boyce…
The Beat Goes On: Ace Collects Rock and Soul of “1967: The Year Pop Divided”
Late in 2015, Ace Records released the compilation Jon Savage’s 1966: The Year The Decade Exploded to coincide with the publication of the author-historian’s book of the same name. Now, Ace and Savage have followed that CD release with another volume – 1967: The Year Pop Divided. The 2-CD collection’s mission statement is clearly set out: “MOR ballads were rife in the U.K. charts in 1967, but thankfully not on this dynamic collection of rock, soul, pop, and incipient funk and psych the teenage Jon Savage thrilled to on pirate radio this…
Feelin’ Groovy: Rhino Plans Vinyl Celebrations for Summer of Love Anniversary
Five decades ago, in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, a social movement was growing. Young people, with heads full of progressive ideas and evolving attitudes toward sex, drugs and rock and roll, were converging on the area to celebrate their personal freedom–an extension of that January’s “Human Be-In” in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The “Summer of Love,” as it was called, was the birth of the modern counterculture, and music played an integral role in the shaping, influencing and mainstreaming of these daring new ideas. Rhino Records will celebrate that…
I’m A Believer: Varese Reissues The Golden Gate Strings’ Monkees Tribute
Tomorrow, April 28, Varese Vintage will reissue one of the most delightfully unexpected Monkees-related titles in recent memory with the compact disc premiere of Stu Phillips Presents The Monkees Songbook, as played by The Golden Gate Strings. The 1967 Epic Records release featured ten favorites from the height of Monkeemania, all rendered in lushly orchestral “easy listening” style. Veteran composer-arranger Stu Phillips (Battlestar Galactica, Knight Rider) spearheaded the project. Well-versed in both pop and cinematic scoring, Phillips was the Colpix Records A&R man who arranged and produced Shelley Fabares’ hit “Johnny Angel”…
Release Round-Up: Week of April 14
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Michael Nesmith, Infinite Tuesday: Autobiographical Riffs – The Music (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Rhino Records offers a 14-track companion CD to Michael Nesmith’s memoir Infinite Tuesday – An Autobiographical Riff (due on April 18). This collection has tracks from Nesmith solo as well as The Monkees and The First National Band, charting his singular and often-trailblazing work over the decades. Read more here! The book is available next Tuesday, April 18, at Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada, and…
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Different Drum: Michael Nesmith’s “Infinite Tuesday” Offers Soundtrack to His Autobiography
On April 18, Crown Archetype will release Infinite Tuesday: An Autobiographical Riff, the long-awaited memoir by Michael Nesmith. The book chronicles Papa Nez’s life from his childhood days in Dallas, Texas through his success with The Monkees, groundbreaking work in music video and virtual reality, and beyond. Four days before the book’s release, however, Rhino Records will issue a companion CD tracing Nesmith’s musical evolution. The April 14 release of Infinite Tuesday: Autobiographical Riffs – The Music features 14 tracks from Nesmith with The Monkees and The First National Band, and as…
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“Tomorrow’s” Here! New Reissue Shines Light on The Modulators
When news came through that Brooklyn label Manufactured Recordings was reissuing Tomorrow’s Coming, the sole full-length LP by cult power-pop group The Modulators, we at Second Disc HQ knew we couldn’t just do an ordinary news post. It’s not just the music–although the music, a sugary-sweet blend of Raspberries-esque dream pop and Marshall Crenshaw-ian jangle-crunch, is thoroughly worth your time. Ultimately, our interest is piqued by the original label that released Tomorrow’s Coming: Vintage Vinyl Records, the boutique label of New Jersey’s largest independent record store and the place both myself and…
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How Happy I Can Be: 7a Records Releases Rare Davy Jones On New Live Single
Attention all daydream believers! The diehard Monkeephiles at 7a Records have an upcoming release that’s sure to cheer up sleepy Jean. Oh what can it mean? On February 24, the 7a team will unveil the label’s latest limited-edition vinyl single, and its first from the late, great Davy Jones. Daydream Believer/I Wanna Be Free captures Jones’ performances of the two all-time Monkees classics recorded on his 1981 tour of Japan. This 7-inch single, strictly limited to 500 copies pressed on translucent yellow vinyl, marks the first official archival release from the artist…
Good Times! The Second Disc’s Essential RSD Black Friday 2016 Release Guide
From all of us here at Second Disc HQ to all of you, we hope you’re enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving in the company of family and friends. Of course, from this day which conjures nostalgic and warm feelings comes a celebration of a different kind with this year’s annual Black Friday – the day for consumers to start off the holiday shopping season on a mad, frenetic note. But 2016 is just in the latest year in which numerous retailers in the U.S. have made headlines by blackening Thursday, or Thanksgiving Day…
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Rhino, Omnivore Plan Black Friday Gold For Record Store Day
That chill in the air and the buzz in your favorite record store can only mean one thing: Record Store Day Black Friday is nearly upon us! On November 25, indie record retailers and labels great and small will partner together to issue dozens of exclusive packages you can’t get anywhere else (except maybe eBay, after the fact, though we’re not happy about that.) The vinyl boom refuses to end, but owing to the lesser size of the event in general, there don’t seem to be as many titles as usual. That…
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Daybreak For Dolenz: Micky’s “MGM Singles” Expanded For CD Premiere
Last July, the 7a Records label debuted with a limited edition vinyl release of Micky Dolenz’s The MGM Singles Collection. Since that auspicious release, the all-things-Monkees label founded by Iain Lee and Glenn Gretlund has enriched Micky, Peter, Michael and Davy’s discography with numerous other releases on both vinyl and compact disc. On October 7, the label will be going full circle with the first-time CD release of The MGM Singles Collection in a lavishly expanded edition featuring the original ten tracks and twelve bonus cuts! The MGM Singles Collection reissues, for…
Release Round-Up: Week of August 26
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! The Beach Boys, Becoming The Beach Boys: The Complete Hite and Dorinda Morgan Sessions (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) This 2-CD set, a tie-in with Jim Murphy’s recent book Becoming The Beach Boys 1961-1963, chronicles the earliest years of America’s Band. Featuring 62 tracks (over 40 previously unreleased), Omnivore’s CD is released in conjunction with The Beach Boys’ Brother Records, and features all of the extant session material and masters for the band’s earliest recordings (including embryonic versions of “Surfin’,” “Surfer Girl” and “Surfin’ Safari”). Watch for…
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Release Round-Up: Week of August 12
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Anthology (BMG) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The new 3-CD/DD release of Emerson, Lake & Palmer – The Anthology rounds out this first wave of titles from BMG including reissues of Emerson Lake & Palmer, Tarkus and Pictures at an Exhibition. Produced by Greg Lake, this career-spanning set has 39 tracks from the years 1970 to 1998, the choice of material approved by all three band members. It’s housed in a deluxe casebound book format with Chris Welch’s…
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Review: “The Monkees: The Complete Series”
2016 marks the 50th anniversary of The Monkees, yes – but it also marks the same milestone for The Monkees. Whether on the original NBC broadcasts, twenty years later on MTV or since then on home video, fans have fallen in love with The Monkees. The television sitcom launched Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith as household names (and faces!) and inspired some of the finest pop music to arrive from any group in the 1960s. Rhino first released The Monkees as a complete series on VHS in 1995,…
Last Train To Clarksville: The Monkees Compile Hits and Favorites On “50” and “Forever”
“You Bring the Summer,” goes one of the brightest tracks on The Monkees’ new hit album Good Times! Well, the summer is bringing more of Micky, Davy, Peter and Mike with the dual August 26 releases of Monkees Forever and The Monkees 50. This announcement comes hot on the heels of the release of the lavish, definitive Blu-ray collection of The Monkees’ television show! These two new collections are timed for the band’s 50th anniversary (currently being celebrated on the road by a successful tour featuring Micky and Peter) and aimed at…
Release Round-Up: Week of July 8
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! John Coltrane, The Atlantic Years in Mono (Atlantic/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Rhino’s new box set, available on both CD and LP, includes original mono mixes of Trane’s Giant Steps; Bags & Trane (with Milt Jackson); Ole Coltrane; Coltrane Plays The Blues and The Avant Garde (with Don Cherry) plus one disc of outtakes. All of these remastered albums are housed in replica jackets and a 32-page booklet is also included with new liner notes by Ashley Kahn and photos by Lee Friedlander. The CD version has…
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Randy Scouse Git: Micky Dolenz Teams with Christian Nesmith, Circe Link on 7a’s New EP
Is there any doubt that 2016 truly is The Year of The Monkees? Following its acclaimed releases earlier this year of Micky Dolenz’s “Chance of a Lifetime” single and An Evening with Peter Noone and Micky Dolenz, 7a Records is continuing its relationship with Monkee Micky for a new vinyl release. Micky has teamed with his bandmate Michael’s son Christian Nesmith and Christian’s partner in music and life, Circe Link, for a brand-new EP! On June 24, 7a will release a translucent, purple-colored vinyl EP with four tracks recorded by the trio…
Review: The Monkees, “Good Times!”
Here they come…again! The Monkees have just released their first new album in twenty years, and all is right with the world. That much is evident from the opening track which gives the LP its title. “Good Times” was demoed by Harry Nilsson for The Monkees, never recorded by the group, and later released by Harry (and “The New Salvation Singers,” natch) on Capitol’s Tower imprint. Now, the late Nilsson’s happily un-ironic, churning pop nugget gains new life as a duet with his very-much-alive pal and fellow Hollywood Vampire Micky Dolenz, and…
Release Round-Up: Week of May 27
Hey! Hey! Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! The Monkees, Good Times (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Good Times sure lives up to its name, and then some! Here’s a new Monkees album featuring Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, Mike Nesmith and the late Davy Jones, produced by Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger and featuring a slew of exciting new songs by Schlesinger, Noel Gallagher, Rivers Cuomo, Ben Gibbard, and Andy Partridge alongside newly-completed recordings of tunes by Neil Diamond, Carole King, Jeff Barry and the late Harry Nilsson (who duets…
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Think About Your Troubles: Micky, Davy and Harry’s “The Point!” Arrives On CD
Let’s get to The Point, shall we? On July 1, Varese Vintage will release for the first time in America – and the first time on CD anywhere in the world – a much-desired addition to the discographies of both Harry Nilsson and The Monkees: The Original London Cast Recording of Nilsson’s The Point (1977), starring Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz, and featuring songs not included on Nilsson’s original RCA solo recording. Inspired by an acid trip (“Everything has a point. And…what would happen if someone were born without one?”) Nilsson devised…
Chance of a Lifetime: 7a Releases Micky Dolenz’s First Single In 33 Years
Come April, Micky Dolenz will be returning to a place where he hasn’t appeared in 33 years. No, the performing mainstay won’t be discovering some new, far-flung venue. But he will be returning to the single shelves of record store racks with his first 45 RPM release since 1983. 7a Records, the label responsible for Dolenz’s The MGM Singles Collection and the recent An Evening with Peter Noone and Micky Dolenz, will release “Chance of a Lifetime” b/w “Living on Lies” in conjunction with Europe’s Record Store Day festivities on Saturday, April…
