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 seventies Motown pair of Rick James and Teena Marie…
Varese Goes On A Record Store Day “Odessey” With The Zombies, The Everly Brothers, Norman Greenbaum [UPDATED]
UPDATED 4/15: It’s the time of the season for Varese Sarabande’s Vintage imprint. The label has recently announced its four limited edition vinyl offerings for this April 19’s Record Store Day, with two LPs from The Zombies plus goodies from The Everly Brothers, and Norman Greenbaum. We also have details on the label’s vinyl Genesis reissue coming later this year. Initially rejected by Clive Davis and then championed by Al Kooper, The Zombies’ 1968 Odessey and Oracle remains the British band’s most beloved album. Rod Argent reflected on it in the liner…
Release Round-Up: Week of April 15
Bee Gees, The Warner Bros. Years 1987-1991 (Warner Bros./Rhino) A new five-disc box collates the Bee Gees’ E.S.P. (1987), One (1989) and High Civilization (1991) – the first two of which have bonus tracks – and 1991’s One for All live concert, released for the first time on CD. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Nas, Illmatic XX (Columbia/Legacy) Queens’ favorite MC celebrates his landmark debut with a newly-expanded edition of the 1994 album with a bonus disc of rare remixes and unreleased tracks. 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Donna Loren, These Are The Good Times: The Complete Capitol Recordings (Now Sounds) Donna…
“Weird Scenes Inside” Rhino’s Record Store Day Slate
With April 19’s Record Store Day a little more than a week away, it might be time to start making those checklists! We’ve already filled you in on exciting releases from Legacy Recordings, Real Gone Music, Sundazed, Omnivore Recordings, Varese Sarabande and many others, but today it’s all about Rhino! The Warner Music Group catalogue arm has a bumper crop of more than 25 exclusive offerings from some of the biggest names classic rock, vintage R&B and beyond – including The Doors, Grateful Dead, Ramones, Randy Newman, and, as previously reported, R.E.M.! And that’s…
Release Round-Up: Week of April 1
Cyndi Lauper, She’s So Unusual: A 30th Anniversary Celebration (Portrait/Epic/Legacy) One of MTV’s first queens wears the crown anew on this deluxe set featuring new remixes, rarities from the vault, rare photographs and a fun expanded package with a diorama and reusable sticker set. Amazon U.S.: 1CD / 2CD / LP Amazon U.K.: 1CD / 2CD / LP Real Gone slate: Doris Day, Music, Movies & Memories / Doris Day, Sings Her Great Movie Hits / Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, The Complete Atlantic Sides Plus (2-CD Set) / Cowboy, Reach for the Sky / Keith Allison, In Action — The Complete Columbia Sides and More!/ The Ohio Express, Beg, Borrow and Steal — The Complete Cameo Recordings / Eddie Kendricks, Love…
Release Round-Up: Week of March 25
Johnny Cash, Out Among the Stars (Columbia/Legacy) This new album of newly-discovered mid-’80s outtakes is perhaps better than what was released at the time. Gorgeous and, at times, haunting, the way Johnny Cash albums should be. CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: 40th Anniversary Edition (Mercury/Rocket/UMe) Elton’s classic double album comes back to glorious life with several lavish editions, featuring new covers of songs from the set, B-sides, live material and more. 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 4CD/1DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. 1BD:…
Of Ghosts, Panthers and Ronettes: Legacy Unveils Record Store Day 2014 Slate
Today’s the day! This morning, Los Angeles’ vinyl mecca Amoeba Music hosted the “Official List Launch” for Record Store Day, with simultaneous unveilings of the extensive RSD ’14 line-up occurring in Nashville and across the pond in London. We’ve already filled you in on some of the exciting titles arriving on Saturday, April 19 from many of our favorite labels (Real Gone Music, Omnivore Recordings) and artists alike (Creedence Clearwater Revival, Devo, Neil Young, R.E.M. ), and there’s plenty more news on the way! Among those slates revealed today was that of…
Five Sundazed Singles to Rock Your Record Store Day
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OBogYK_40U] It’s like NFL draft day for music geeks*! Today’s the big announcement of the full Record Store Day 2014 exclusives list, to kick off with a press conference at Los Angeles’ Amoeba Music later today. While we’re positive there are some great surprises in store, a number of our favorite labels have already spilled the beans on their spreads for April 19. Sundazed Music, purveyors of great vintage rock on CD and vinyl, have five 45 RPM singles releasing on the big day, including big hits and rare rockin’ sides from…
KISS Prep Smashes, Thrashes, Hits, Everything Else for Vinyl Mega-Box (UPDATED)
Think of all the reissues, repackagings and other ephemera released over the decades by the unforgettable rock band (and impending Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees) KISS. Now quadruple them. That’s pretty much what to expect with KISSteria, the latest box set announced by the band. This limited edition set, of which 1,000 units will be made, features 34 KISS albums on vinyl in an Anvil road case packed with more merchandise than you can wave a Love Gun (or anything else, really) at. This includes nearly all their studio albums (2009’s Sonic Boom is…
R.E.M. “Unplugged” Set to Complicate Your Life on Record Store Day
A then-unheard of gap of three years stood between R.E.M.’s first two albums for Warner Bros. Records – 1988’s Green and 1991’s Out of Time – so there’s still time to go before the departed band’s ongoing 25th anniversary album remaster campaign enters the 1990s. With that, Warner Bros. is instead releasing, for the first time, two complete live sets the band recorded for the beloved MTV Unplugged series. Both sets will first be available in a single, four-disc vinyl box set to be released on Record Store Day. The Athens, Georgia quartet’s first appearance on the…
Rhino Gets the Led Out with Deluxe Zeppelin Remasters
After endless speculation fueled by former guitarist Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin and Atlantic/Swan Song today announced the first wave in a new reissue campaign from one of the world’s most acclaimed rock bands. Starting on June 3, with the first three Led Zeppelin albums from 1969-1970 – all self-titled, with Roman numerals appended to each “sequel” – Page has overseen remastered and expanded versions of each of the band’s albums, all featuring a disc’s worth of unreleased vault content, including studio outtakes, alternate mixes, live cuts and a few entirely unheard songs….
Release Round-Up: Week of March 11
Sid Selvidge, The Cold of the Morning (Omnivore) A long out-of-print classic, produced by Big Star producer Jim Dickinson and featuring a killer set of tunes written or arranged by the late Memphis folk master (and father of Steve Selvidge, current guitarist of The Hold Steady, who produced this new reissue) and featuring six unreleased bonus tracks. CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Bayeté, Worlds Around the Sun (Omnivore Recordings) The debut album by jazz keyboardist Todd Cochran, known for his work with names as diverse as Carl Palmer, Peter Gabriel and Joey Scarbury, is released on…
CCR Take It Back to ’69 with Record Store Day Compilation
Creedence Clearwater Revival are taking it back to the year it all started – sort of – for a new compilation to be released on Record Store Day. To those who were paying attention, Creedence Clearwater Revival were pretty active before 1969. Singer-songwriter-guitarist John Fogerty, older brother/rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford had been performing and recording together in their native San Francisco since 1959, first under the name of The Blue Velvets (in which Tom wrote and sang while Cook played piano instead of bass) and…
75 Years of Blue Note Records to Be Honored in Two Years of Reissues
Venerable jazz label Blue Note Records celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, and they’re celebrating well into the next year with an ambitious campaign that will see parent company Universal Music Group reissue dozens of titles on vinyl through 2015. Founded in 1939 by mogul Alfred Lion and musician Max Margulis, Blue Note started as your average traditional jazz label before 1947, at which point the company started to focus on innovations in the genre, namely bebop and hard bop. Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Art Blakey, Fats Navarro, Hank Mobley, Sonny Rollins,…
Out of the Dungeons: Numero Collects Dark Fantasy Rock, Creates “Darkscorch” Game
In past years, Numero Group’s Wayfaring Strangers series has taken adventurous listeners along to hear Ladies from the Canyon, Guitar Soli and Lonesome Heroes, drawing on rare or privately-pressed folk music and casting it in a new light. With its latest release, however, Numero is traversing even more unexpected territory. The punningly-titled Warfaring Strangers volume entitled Darkscorch Canticles will immerse listeners in a world of mystics and mages, devils and demons, and yes, dungeons and dragons. The 16-track anthology, due in stores today on CD, LP and MP3, is a first-of-its-kind compilation…
Release Round-Up: Week of March 4
Little Feat, Rad Gumbo: The Complete Warner Bros. Years 1971-1990 (Warner Bros./Rhino) The eclectic rock band’s near two-decade run on Warner Bros. is celebrated in this new box set, featuring all the band’s original studio albums, an expanded edition of the live Waiting for Columbus and a bonus disc of recordings sourced from the band’s 2000 box set Hotcakes & Outtakes. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) The Grass Roots, The Complete Original Dunhill/ABC Hit Singles / Irma Thomas, Full Time Woman — The Lost Cotillion Album / Professor Longhair, The Last Mardi Gras / Dr. John, The Night Tripper, Gris Gris / David Ruffin, My Whole World Ended/Feelin’ Good /…
Neil Young’s “Time Fades Away” to Be Reissued on Record Store Day
He’s called it “the worst record I ever made,” but Neil Young’s putting his 1973 live album Time Fades Away back into print for only the second time, as part of a limited box set for Record Store Day. The Neil Young Official Release Series Discs 5-8 box set, limited to 3,500 copies at participating independent retailers on this year’s Record Store Day events on April 19, will feature 180-gram reissues of Time Fades Away, On the Beach (1974), Tonight’s the Night (1975) and Zuma (1975), newly remastered at Bernie Grundman Mastering, pressed at Pallas MFG Germany and featuring reproduced…
Working Men: Rush Announce Deluxe Vinyl Reissue of Debut LP
A little over four decades after its first release, Canadian rockers Rush will reissue their first album on high-quality vinyl in April. Rush, the band’s self-titled debut on the band’s own label Moon Records, was a primitive but promising start for the band. Singer/bassist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer John Rutsey (who, within a year’s time, would be replaced by current drummer Neil Peart) turned out a low-fidelity but enthusiastic batch of originals bearing a stronger resemblance to other ’60s and ’70s hard rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Cream…
Deep Purple Revisit “Made in Japan” in a Big Way
Deep Purple’s monstrous power as a live act was solidified more than four decades ago with the release of their first live album, Made in Japan. This May, a tidal wave of Made in Japan reissues are surging your way, from remasters to expansions to box sets on CD, vinyl and Blu-Ray. (Whew!) In 1972, Deep Purple were flying higher than ever. The quintet – at the time, singer Ian Gillan, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, bassist Roger Glover, keyboardist Jon Lord and drummer Ian Paice – had just released their sixth album in five years (and third with…
Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen Issues “High Hopes” Outtakes For RSD, MusiCares Tribute Hits DVD and BD
When Bruce Springsteen’s High Hopes debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 this January, the iconic artist earned his eleventh chart-topping album. That was enough to make him the No. 3 all-time champ in that department, just behind The Beatles (19) and Jay-Z (13). The eclectic recordings used to assemble High Hopes divided many of Springsteen’s devotees, as did the contributions of Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello. But par for the course with any Bruce-related release, the songs heard on High Hopes were culled from a larger group, leaving outtakes…
Rock ‘N’ Roll Stars Revisited: Oasis Announce Catalogue Expansion
Britpop band Oasis may never be reuniting again thanks to the hilariously toxic relationship between brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher, but the band’s 20th anniversary will be celebrated with several deluxe reissues, the first of which was announced today. This year, all three of the band’s albums released in the 1990s will be remastered and expanded, starting with 1994 debut album Definitely Maybe, to be reissued in May. (The set’s being referred to as the “Chasing the Sun Edition,” to quote a lyric from the band’s “Slide Away.”) Their next two albums, (What’s…
EXCLUSIVE: Real Gone Saddles Up To Record Store Day With Never-Before-Heard Music From Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
Waylon Jennings might have said it best: “Bob Wills is still the King.” The song of that name closed Jennings’ 1975 album Dreaming My Dreams, which was released just one month after the death of the King of Western Swing at age 70. Waylon’s ode to Bob Wills was revived three decades later by The Rolling Stones, and the sentiment still held true. Now, Real Gone Music is celebrating Record Store Day 2014 – that’s Saturday, April 19 – with a slice of ultra-rare, vintage Americana that you’ve never heard before. The…
Release Round-Up: Week of February 25
Morrissey, Your Arsenal: Definitive Master (Parlophone) We don’t hate it when Moz becomes successful, as was the case with his third non-compilation album from 1992, which now comes with an unreleased live show on DVD. CD/DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. Johnny Winter, True to the Blues: The Johnny Winter Story (Columbia/Legacy) A four-disc tribute to the influential blues guitarist, who turned 70 on Sunday. (Amazon U.S./ Amazon U.K.) Bob Mould, Workbook: 25th Anniversary Edition (Omnivore) After the disbandment of Hüsker Dü, singer/guitarist Mould was on the solo beat with this album, now expanded with an unreleased 1989 concert at…
Hank Williams, Jaco Pastorius Lead Off Omnivore’s RSD Slate
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUKPRPWCDHg] That change in the air pressure you’re probably feeling around your favorite indie record store can only mean one thing: Record Store Day 2014 is coming your way. April 19 will see a host of beloved major and independent labels celebrating the good old resilient brick-and-mortar store with various titles sold exclusively at participating stores. And the beloved cratediggers at Omnivore Recordings have four exciting titles prepared for the big day – nearly all of which feature artists making their debut appearances on the label. In a fitfully-brief career that ended…
Jump on It! Incredible Bongo Band’s Debut Reissued on Vinyl
Of all the breaks in hip-hop history to get you on the dance floor, few are more thrilling to this very day than “Apache,” as recorded by Michael Viner’s Incredible Bongo Band. A cover of a Jerry Lordan instrumental made famous by The Shadows in the U.K. and Jørgen Ingman and His Guitar in the U.S. in the early 1960s, the bongo-heavy version of “Apache” never charted but became a major influence on early hip-hop. The song’s spaghetti western-esque riff was sampled by the likes of The Beastie Boys, Nas, Grandmaster Flash,…
