Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Black Sabbath, Sabotage: Super Deluxe Edition (Warner/Rhino) 4CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Rhino.com 4LP/7″: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Rhino.com Rhino is expanding Black Sabbath's 1975 album Sabotage to 4CD and 4LP/7″ proportions. The upcoming Super Deluxe Edition boasts a remastered version of the original album plus a complete live show from Sabbath's 1975 tour. The vinyl version only includes a bonus
Over the course of a career spanning more than half a century, Van Dyke Parks has collaborated with Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson, Ry Cooder, Little Feat, Bonnie Raitt, and Silverchair; penned the legendary SMiLE with Brian Wilson; re-teamed with Wilson for the subsequent concept albums Orange Crate Art (recently reissued by Omnivore Recordings) and That Lucky Old Sun; played the accordion on The Beach Boys' chart-topping "Kokomo;" and even arranged Baloo the Bear's famous ode to "The Bare
Today's Black Friday shopping will likely look a little different thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. But one thing will remain the same: Record Store Day's yearly event. It's been a packed year with RSD Drops in the months of August, September, and October. Now, they're going out with a bang. Labels big and small will release limited-edition vinyl with the collector in mind. Whether you're after new music from legends, reissues of sought-after recordings, or unreleased rarities from the vault,
November 27 is always a special day for vinyl enthusiasts. Still filled up on last night's Thanksgiving meal, music fans line up at their local shop for a chance at limited-edition vinyl. While the celebrations may look a little different this year in light of the COVID-19 pandemic (RSD has announced they'll be less stringent about online sales) one thing remains the same: There are some excellent releases on offer, available exclusively from your local participating record shop! Here are
Orange crate art was a place to start/Orange crate art was a world apart... Van Dyke Parks - composer, lyricist, arranger, producer, and all-around iconoclast - found inspiration in those familiar fruit crates painted with lovely, bucolic images of the fantasyland known as California. Having crafted a relaxed, loping melody, he was determined to set lyrics to it. The story goes that the first word he thought of was "orange." While it isn't easy to rhyme, it does stir at least four of the
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, Orange Crate Art: 25th Anniversary Edition (Omnivore) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Omnivore 2LP Black Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Omnivore 2LP Colored Vinyl: Omnivore Omnivore celebrates 25 years of Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks' beautiful Orange Crate Art with a variety of reissues. The 2-CD version boasts three previously unreleased bonus tracks on the first
"In the real world, Sid 'n Susie are Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs - two navigators in the pop musical current, current tense vocally and as tunesmiths with prime craft of their own write. They've bagged the best of the '60s with uncanny insight. I know. I was there but can remember," asserted Van Dyke Parks in his introduction to 2006's Under the Covers Vol. 1. On that volume, Sid 'n Susie revisited some of their favorite songs of the 1960s, largely staying faithful to the original
Brian Wilson found himself an artistic crossroads in 1995. His first solo album was seven years in the rearview mirror. He had begun rebuilding his life with new wife Melinda three years after being extricated from the "care" of disgraced doctor Eugene Landy. Now, it was time for a creative rebirth, too. It began in January with the release of Don Was' documentary film I Just Wasn't Made for These Times and its accompanying soundtrack. It continued later in the year when Wilson reunited with one
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! It's Such a Good Feeling: The Best of Mister Rogers (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Welcome back to the Neighborhood! This celebration of the music of Mister Rogers collects 23 songs recorded by the host, with accompaniment from longtime sideman Johnny Costa on piano, Carl McViker on bass, and Bobby Rawsthorne on percussion. Complementing the music is an illustrated booklet with photos, an introduction by the Won't You
ORIGINAL POST OF MAY 8: UPDATED AUGUST 22: Well, blow me down! Varese Sarabande will be bringing the soundtrack to composer-lyricist Harry Nilsson and director Robert Altman's loopy film musical version of Popeye to compact disc in an authorized edition for the very first time on September 29 - but that's not all. This 2-CD deluxe edition will not only feature all of Nilsson's memorable songs as performed by the perfectly-cast likes of Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, and Paul Dooley, but will
BREAKING! Well, blow me down! Varese Sarabande has just shared the news with The Second Disc that the label will be bringing the soundtrack to composer-lyricist Harry Nilsson and director Robert Altman's loopy film musical version of Popeye to compact disc for the very first time in July - but that's not all. This 2-CD deluxe edition will not only feature all of Nilsson's memorable songs as performed by the perfectly-cast likes of Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, and Paul Dooley, but will also
"I was living up the street from Carl Wilson and his wife Annie," Ricci Martin told me in July of this year. "I was over his house, playing his piano. And Carl said, 'God, I really like that! Did you write that?' And I said, 'Yeah, I wrote that!' And he said, 'How would you like to record that?' And I said, 'Of course, absolutely!'" The song Ricci was playing was "Stop, Look Around," a shimmering slice of Southern California pop that would open his 1977 Epic Records album Beached. Carl Wilson
The Allman Brothers Band, The 1971 Fillmore East Recordings (Mercury/UMe) The four shows in March 1971 that made up the band's legendary breakthrough album are presented in full for the first time, along with the group's closing set at the Fillmore East that following June. The Blu-ray version features the material in both stereo and 5.1 surround sound. 6CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 3-BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 4LP Highlights: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Peggy Lipton, The Complete Ode
If you've been following these pages for the past few weeks, you've likely noticed an awful lot of coverage about Record Store Day! Well, the day is nearly here! Tomorrow, Saturday, April 21, music fans and collectors will flock to their local independent record stores to celebrate both the sounds on those round black platters and the very concept of shopping in a physical retail environment. To many of us, both are a way of life. We're doubly excited this year because one special title was
Another year...another Black Friday. Yes, it's that time of year again in which consumers start off the holiday shopping season on a mad, frenetic note. This year is another one in which numerous big-box retailers in the U.S. have made headlines by blackening Thursday, or Thanksgiving Day itself, by sales starting on the holiday. So many might give thanks that the folks behind Record Store Day are waiting until the traditional Friday to release their twice-yearly slate of exclusive releases. As
Raise your hand if you’ll be joining 2013 Ambassador Jack White tomorrow to celebrate Record Store Day 2013! Yes, on Saturday, April 20, independent record stores everywhere will offer an eclectic roster of limited edition releases of all kinds – most on vinyl, but some on CD, too. As usual, the labels participating in RSD ’13 have a number of surprises on the way, previewing future releases, revisiting past titles and even curating completely new packages. As is our tradition here, we’re
In olden days, a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking! Now heaven knows, anything goes...Good authors, too, who once knew better words now only use four-letter words writing prose! Anything goes! When Cole Porter wrote "Anything Goes" in 1934, could he have had any idea that his commentary would prove just as relevant more than thirty years later, and indeed, even today? In 1967, three years after the esteemed songsmith's passing, the members of Harpers Bizarre unleashed
Leon Russell might have been reluctant to return to his pop music roots when producer Lenny Waronker invited him to sit in the arranger's chair for Harpers Bizarre's 1967 debut album. But in retrospect, a Master of Time and Space must have been involved in any LP that listed among its credits Randy Newman, Van Dyke Parks, Paul Simon, Richard Rodgers and Sergei Prokofiev! The California quintet's Feelin' Groovy long-player is still one of the boldest, most imaginative and most fun debut albums
Surf's up. At long last, we can finally announce that SMiLE is coming to a shop near you. On November 1, Capitol Records will release The Beach Boys' 1967 lost masterwork as The SMiLE Sessions in three editions: a 5-CD/2-LP/2 7-inch single box (yes, 9 discs!), a slimmer 2-CD version and a 2-LP set. Where to start? First, I recommend digging that artwork at your left. Has it settled in that this set is becoming a reality? Good. Read on, friends. The saga of SMiLE, 2011, was becoming
Before Abbey Road or Caribou, The Beau Brummels immortalized a famous recording studio as the title of Bradley’s Barn, their 1968 album for Warner Bros. Records. The San Francisco pop-rock outfit had travelled to Nashville, Tennessee to record at Owen Bradley’s storied venue at roughly the same time their contemporaries, The Byrds, were on the other side of town cutting Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Though the “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Turn! Turn! Turn!” hitmakers beat the Brummels to the punch
Forgive the hyperbole, but there’s nobody quite like Van Dyke Parks. Composer, arranger, producer, singer, musician, actor, author, raconteur, Parks is one-of-a-kind. Known for his dazzling, sometimes oblique wordplay, and sheer musical invention, Parks has contributed production, arrangements and songs to an incredible number of renowned artists over the years, often blazing new trails while harnessing his vast knowledge of popular music. For the first time, the renaissance man's work as a